


The Vulnerable Boy and the Friend of Crows

by DakkyComics



Category: Persona 4, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:54:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 50,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26258980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DakkyComics/pseuds/DakkyComics
Summary: Summary of this chapter: To save a life, Akechi enters a contract with the twins from his respective Velvet Room, and he needs Ren's help to fulfil his wildcard duties. It's hard for Akechi to open up and ask for help, but he soon finds himself enjoying his time with Ren who seems to genuinely love spending time with him. Akechi needs to decide if isolation or being vulnerable with Ren suits him best, and his past with Shido, Naoto, and Wakaba start to resurface.Summary of entire work: Akechi grapples with friendship, love, and vulnerability for a month while fighting with the Phantom Thieves. He falls for Ren, enters therapy, and tries to earn a future of happiness.
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Persona 5 Protagonist, Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 13
Kudos: 60





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Major Persona 5 Royal Spoilers, and Persona 4 and 3 Spoilers.
> 
> This is an AU where Akechi survives the boiler room and joins the Phantom Thieves. This Fanfiction also incorperates the unused scene where Akechi stays at a rehabilitation clinic in future chapters. This is a finished fanfiction in 3 parts.

**Part 1**

**Nov 27th**

“Use _debilitate_!” Joker demanded of Crow.

“I can’t! I don’t have that skill anymore!” 

Joker, Noir, and Mona look at Crow in astonishment as they fight the twins in a fight till the end of consciousness. Caroline revived Justine, they tagged, tagged, hitting the Thieves’ weaknesses until the team collapsed.

They awoke in Mementos, Skull on one knee using items on Joker to bring him back to full health.

“Well _that_ was a disaster,” Panther sighed, crouching by Joker. “ _Told_ you to tag me in.”

Joker glanced at Crow, who was looking away, holding his head as Fox offered him items. Panther side-eyed him too, unimpressed, but not wanting to be obvious about it. 

“He’s under-leveled by like, twelve levels,” Oracle huffed with brutal honesty, having no problem pointing out the elephant in the room. “Shoulda chosen Fox. Need a DPS.”

“DPS?” Yusuke asked, nonplussed. 

“I get it,” Crow whapped Yusuke’s hand away from him, earning him a scowl as he’d papped his artist hand. “Why did you even _bring me_? I’m going home.” Crow dusted himself off and started to walk to the entrance.

“We’re not done here,” Joker noted, and Crow shot him an absolutely poisonous look before warping back to reality. Joker was... unused to someone disobeying him in the metaverse, leaving before being dismissed, but he figured he should expect that from Crow.

“That rage-quit was bib-li-cal,” Oracle snorted, stifling a laugh. “Wish I had that on camera.”

“It’s committed to my photographic memory, shall I draw it for you?” Fox asked.

“Can I commission a mosaic?”

Joker sighed.

“Please lay off Crow, everyone. I’m trying to…”

They were all silent, waiting to hear the rest of the sentence.

“I guess...I don’t know what I’m trying to do. I thought he had _Debilitate_? Did his move set change? He made it sound like he released Robin Hood.”

Skull crossed his arms. 

“Uh, _yeah, bro_. Ever since he became a bizarro Candy Land villain, he’s always used Loki.”

“I thought he just _preferred_ Loki. I didn’t know Robin Hood was _gone_ . None of my personas ever just _leave_. Doesn’t he have the power of the wildcard? When he fought in the boiler room, he used both.”

Noir shrugged, suggesting “This is concerning, maybe he is a wildcard but his stock is...one?”

“There’s no use thinking about it here,” Mona insisted. “We should continue on or go home.”

In the early evening, Ren entered LeBlanc. It was clean, empty, dim. He was exhausted from an afternoon of grinding, looking for checkpoints, trading flowers. He let Morgana out of his bag and flipped on a light.

“Hey hey! Do you want to call Kawakami?”

“Don’t mind if I do,” he replied, picking up the landline.

Feeling revitalized, he sat on his bed looking at his phone; he wanted to call Akechi and explain that they’d farmed Death on a day he wasn’t available. But what exactly would that accomplish?

Makoto pinged him just as he was about to open his chat log with Akechi.

‘ _Akechi is underleveled, I volunteer to go to Mementos with you, him, and Morgana and farm Death so he can earn some experience. He’ll be a burden to us otherwise. I’m free weekends._ ’

Practical as always, and offering solutions to problems others hadn’t even noticed yet.

‘ _Thanks, I’ll keep you posted._ ’

He called Akechi. He didn’t pick up. _'Subscriber *number*’s mailbox is full. Goodbye,_ ’ the artificial voice said.

“Oof,” Morgana hummed, tail languidly swaying behind him. “I guess he _is_ a celebrity.”

“I’m gonna check Jazz Jin.”

“Really? You’re gonna take transit _all_ the way to the Jazz bar just to _see_ if he’s there?” Ren smirked.

“Coming?”

“...yeah. But I’m gonna go off on my own once we’re there.”

He wasn’t at the Jazz bar.

He wasn’t at the Penguin Sniper Club.

Ren couldn’t resist texting Akechi ‘U up?’ with ultimately no reply.

After getting back on transit he found Chihaya, who winked at him.

“You ask to be closer to this boy a lot,” she noted, shuffling.

“Please.” He pushed 5,000 yen her way and her expression changed to delighted. “I’m happy you believe in tarot like this! Sometimes I think you’re a god who’s transcended the need for divine guidance, but then when you come to me for social help, it humanizes you.” She giggled and Ren rolled his eyes, smiling. “Plus you’re like a fifth of my income. Let’s see what the cards say~” she said sing-songy, slapping three cards down. Joker felt a force, a warmness in his heart and mind.

“Your feelings should have reached him,” she assured. “Boy, he seemed pissed. Is this…” she regarded the cards, then Ren, then the cards again. “Akechi from TV?”

“The same.”

“Wow. You have handsome celebrity friends and you come see me on a friday night! I feel honored.”

“You’re worth it,” Ren smiled. “You keep forgetting you’re a badass. It takes _guts_ to move across the country with no safety net. You’re hardcore, Mifune-san.”

“It’s hard to remember when my boss misgenders me all the time,” she mumbled, breaking eye contact.

“...Hey.” Joker tilted his head to find and meet her eyes. “What’s their full name?”

**~~~~~**

On his way back to the station, Akechi messaged him.

 _‘I’m still awake_.’ Grinning, Ren thought of a reply. He couldn’t fuck this up.

_ >Rage-quits are for the weak _

_ >>Let me buy you a drink _

_ >we should train together _

‘ _Let me buy you a drink_ ,’ and send.

Akechi didn’t reply right away. Ren was laying down in his bed when Akechi replied ‘ _I’m free tomorrow._ ’

‘ _Let’s meet at your place_ ,’ Ren texted.

‘ _Absolutely not._ ’

Ren thought about where he’d want to invite Akechi...needed to be less crowded, but have fun things to do.

‘ _Meet me at the Maid Cafe in Akihabara_.’ It was a while before Akechi replied ‘ _Sure, whatever_.’

**Nov 28th**

Akechi was already there when Ren arrived, checking out the gacha machines.

“Did you buy any?” Ren asked jogging up to him, eliciting a slight snarl on Akechi’s face for even suggesting it. In response Ren grinned and reached into his pocket to show Akechi a few rare gachas he’d bought.

“You’re _joking, right?_ ” Ren smiled until the 'Joker' pun took, and Akechi rolled his eyes into his skull. “I shouldn’t have come.”

“It’s just lunch, you’ll survive. You’ve survived worse.”

Akechi looked uncomfortable in this bright pink atmosphere, and irked that there were only four things on the menu.

“Hello! I’ll be your clumsy maid for today! May I take your order?”

Akechi ordered a relaxing coffee.

Ren ordered an omelette.

“Omelette? Seems hard but I’ll do my best for you Master! ♥️”

She walked off and the boys looked at each other, Ren looking much more at ease than Akechi.

“No Love Pancakes?”

“I _knew_ you’d go there. What did you invite me out for?”

“I...have a gift for you!” 

Akechi stiffened. Now, he’d received an absurd amount of gifts to his fan mail's PO Box, but. From Ren? Ren thought about him on his off time enough to buy him a gift?

“O-oh…? That’s unexpected. What is it?” Akechi broke eye contact, fidgeting a little.

An entire inventory of things, but. What on earth would Akechi like?

Ren gave him a black mug. Akechi’s eyebrows furrowed, he wasn’t impressed in the least.

Sighing, Akechi offered it back. “Honestly I don’t even want to put in the effort to take this home. You can have it back.” After Ren did, Akechi brought it up, stretching and cracking his back before resting his chin in his hand.

“So you want to talk about last night, right? What do you have to say.” 

“I wish you would have stayed.”

“Why, so you could mock me to my face?”

“No! No, just. We could have _trained_ together.” Akechi rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

“So...pity.”

“That’s not it.”

“Why did you take me to fight them?” Akechi asked in a hushed but angry voice, looking more irritated by the second. “Your other teammates were better suited—”

“—I thought you had ‘ _debilitate_ ’.”

“Well I don’t, so. Take your Thieves and go without me.”

“I wanted to win with _you,_ ” Ren insisted. Akechi’s eyebrows raised a smidge, and his face softened. “I wanted to triumph with you specifically, Akechi.”

“W-what does that matter? As long as the objective is achieved—”

“It’s not like that. I want _you_ on my party. We make a good team, and I enjoy your company.”

“Company,” Akechi scoffed, leaning back in his chair and looking away.

“I don’t know about you, but I _like_ this. Battling at arcades, sparring in Mementos. I don’t give a shit about your level.”

“...Then you’re more of an idiot than I thought.”

“Here you go~!” The high pitched sing-songy voice of the maid cut through the tense air.

“One black coffee! Taking it easy on me, Master♥️” Akechi took a sip, grimaced. “And for youuuu one Sincere Omelette!” She picked up the ketchup bottle. “What should I write, hmm.” She tapped her glossed lips until she leaned in and wrote ‘The Privilege of Individuality’, but ran out of space on the Omelette, writing it on the plate. “Oh no, I ran out of space, Master! I’m so terribly sorry, will you forgive me?”

>Forgive her

>Be mean

>>Be _really_ mean

Ren shook his head, earning a cautious squint from Akechi, and he tilted the plate until the omelette slipped and splattered dismally onto the floor, rice flying across the tile, getting ketchup on her shoes and tights.

“Unacceptable. _Remake it_.”

She started wailing and ran off with a tearful ‘Okaaaay!’

Akechi (and everyone else in the cafe,) looked at him bewildered for a moment, and Akechi started laughing.

“Ren what the **_fuck_**?!” He snorted trying to stifle his laughter, quickly snatched 5,000 yen out of his wallet and dropped it on the table, then walked out of the cafe to have his laughing fit on the street.

When Ren found him he was clutching his chest and wiping his tears just outside the entrance. Breathless he just shook his head, he had no words until he managed to get out

“ _And_ her coffee was shit!” They laughed together, leaning on the brick wall of the opposite building.

When they calmed down and started to catch their breath, Akechi continued.

“You treat maids like that? I didn’t think you had it in you. You should be an insufferable bastard more often, like it.”

“Me? At least I don’t kill people,” Ren retorted, voice barely over a whisper.

“Well,” Akechi rolled his eyes, still grinning, his cheeks hurt at this point. “With an MO like that, there's still time.” Akechi shook off the last of the laughter, and just took some time to breathe deeply. “I don’t think I’ve _ever_ laughed like that.” He smiled over at Ren, who smiled gently back. Maybe now was a good time to bring it up.

“What happened to Robin Hood?” Akechi smirked, huffing. 

“He’s long gone. After you defeated me—twice—” the joy faded from his face. “I knew I couldn’t win with him. I hated him. I’ve always had Robin Hood, but Loki is stronger. I got rid of him when I didn’t need him any more. That wasn’t me. Robin Hood was...a tool. Disposable. I always hated that _white night facade_ ,” he growled through clenched teeth. 

Ren considered this for a moment. He'd always had Robin Hood, but Loki came...later?

"Wouldn't it make more sense to have both? If accomplishing an agenda is the thing that matters most to you, two would make you more powerful, right?"

"We shouldn't talk about this here," Akechi said in a hushed voice. They'd been talking quietly and vaguely, but it still wasn't safe. Hundreds of people reported to Shido, and at least Akechi was easy to recognize. "I shouldn't be talking about this at _all_. I don't know what it is about you that makes me want to monologue. I should go."

"Wait," Ren asked, stopping Akechi who turned to look irritatedly at him. "Let me buy you a video game?"

"Come again?"

"Well, you didn't like the mug, so." Ren seemed embarrassed. "There's a vintage video game shop over there? Let's go together. They have some new games too."

"You're...persistent. I have _'stuff_ ', Ren."

"But not from _me,_ " he pleaded. Akechi's eyes drifted away to look at nothing in particular, appearing to be considering it.

"You're an odd one, but under one condition. Don't pull any more stunts. The only reason I'm not mad about the misconduct at the maid cafe is because that wretched establishment, for some reason, didn't have security cameras. I take my public image very seriously."

Ren turned to lead Akechi to the store. 

"I can be on my best behavior for you."

"Weird way to phrase it, but alright."

Ren traded in a few codes and got prizes from the store owner, along with enthusiastic praise and a discussion about the vintage games they beat. Akechi rolled his eyes and walked off to look around. He wasn't one to linger around and watch Ren get praised. It pissed him off. Everyone loved Attic Trash kun, it was _nauseating_. 

The store was charming, but visually busy; hundreds of cartridges with color saturated labels faced him, cables carefully tied up with rubber bands. He'd only heard of a few of them. Why the hell did Ren want to buy him a game? He'd never owned a console, he'd only played arcade games. And these were expensive, too. Maybe he was desperate for his friendship? Wanted to buy him off? Truly a noble crusade, but. Ren was wasting his time.

"I should have known I'd find you in the puzzle game section!" Akechi felt his rival sling an arm across his shoulders. He stiffened and his fists clenched in his gloves. His heart rate began to pick up, he didn't know if he was panicked, pissed, or happy. Ren noticed the conflict on Akechi's face and took his arm back. "Sorry, no good?" Akechi stood before him, flustered, and he gave an honest answer.

"I'm... not used to it."

Ren wanted to change the subject, but. They may as well sort this out.

"Should I not touch you? Is...this a boundary?"

"It...it's not a _boundary_ , I'm just. Not used to it." Akechi shook his head. "I don't know yet. I'm not holding it against you, you're treating me like an equal. I've observed you doing that with...people you're close with." He sighed. "Why are we doing this? Why am I here again?"

"Because I want…" Ren crouched to rummage around in a bin closer to the floor. "...to play games with you. Ya know, if you get a newer console you can play online with friends." Akechi's face grew taut at that. Friends? "Bam!" He handed Akechi a 3DS. "If I got this for you would you play puzzle games online with me?"

"Aren't you supposed to be focusing on your mission?" He grumbled, taking the 3DS. 

"Don't worry about it. We've got time." Ren chose a 3DS for himself, made sure they had cases and chargers and bought them. They walked out the store and toward the transit line together.

"You can challenge me any time, I'll make time to play."

"We're in the middle of trying to stop the ruin of this country, and you want to play puzzle games."

"I uh...know you're a pretty busy man. This game is portable, so. Next time you're...waiting in your dressing room getting made up for an interview, text me and we can play Tetris for a bit."

"Thoughtful," he stated, looking unimpressed.

"Tough crowd," Ren sighed, looking disheartened. Why was _that_ the thing that got Akechi to smile.

"You're such a people-pleaser, Ren. It makes you easy to read, and easy to manipulate. I can't fathom why you give a damn? Friends become liabilities—"

"I _get_ that... But they also empower me. They make me stronger, and together we become a network of knowledge and niche useful skills—"

" _Spare me,_ " Akechi groaned, exasperated. "To be frank, I can't stand you, Ren. This?" He pointed to his 3DS, "Is inane, and a waste of time."

"Then why did you come see me today?"

"Because watching your pathetic attempts to befriend me _regales_ me. Why else. I expected you to kick me out of the team. I was excited for you to reject me to my face. The people-pleaser, cutting his losses. I thought it'd be fascinating to watch."

"Over _one loss_?"

"Why are you so okay with _losing_?!" Akechi spat.

Ren didn't respond, giving Akechi a moment to regain his composure. It was Ren's turn to smile. Akechi blushed, livid.

"I'd kill you again, if I could. But you're like a _cockroach_. And those friends of yours—"

"How would you do it?" 

"Do what?"

"Kill me. You've clearly thought about it.” Ren’s demeanor changed; his face darkened and his voice sounded steely. “Would you make it quick, Goro? End me by gun again? Push me off a bridge, giving me a few miserable seconds to grapple with the betrayal before I die instantly?" Ren stepped closer to Akechi, leaned into his intimate space, feeding off of his rage. Akechi's teeth clenched, his fists balled, but he stood his ground. "Would you make it slow, Goro? You'd like to see my eyes roll back?"

"URGH!" Akechi slugged Ren in the chin, Ren recoiled just a step. He covered his mouth, and when he removed his hand his lip was bloodied. He smiled deviously, pink teeth.

"Mementos, _now_." Akechi demanded, grabbing a fistful of Ren's shirt.

**~~~~~**

"When I kill you I'm going to throw your body in a dark corner at the feet of shadows. Your friends will never find you, unless they follow the _stench_."

Joker used Ishtar to heal up his lip and headache. He wasn't too worried, but he knew he needed to stay on his toes. His friends weren't there to save him if he got careless.

"You're 0 to 2. Think you can do it?" He lowered into battle stance.

"Ohoho, at this point I don't care. This is a fight to the death, Joker. I intend to win. And I will, because you won't kill me. Any last requests?"

"One. No. Two. If I win, you owe me one favor. And I get to call you Goro in public."

Crows' eyes narrowed at Joker.

"Not one hundred percent sure if you know what a fight to the death means, but I suppose it's not my problem. LOKI!"

Crow’s twisted persona appeared behind him, floating menacingly.

“Satan.” Joker’s three story tall persona loomed behind him, spreading its wings, casting a dark shadow over their entire area.

“I won’t lose,” intimidated, Crow huffed, casting _Makarakarn_. Joker took the opportunity to cast _Heat Riser_ , then pointed his gun for a down shot.

“ _Piece of shit._ Persona!” 

Joker started to shiver and he dropped his gun. What? He watched the model clatter at his feet, and the cold acid of despair start to creep into his brain. How. How could he go out like this? Too much despair to grab a happy pop. Too much despair to switch personas. Too much despair to move. He was going to die.

“Is...is that all it took?” Crow's stance changed, he was no longer on guard. “Really? Ha! Hahaha?! I’m fucking disappointed! I wanted you to at least get _one_ hit in.” 

He could feel it. He was close to succumbing. He watched Crow draw near, and Crow held his sword to Joker’s neck. “Checkmate, Joker. I win.”

“Help…”

“Begging for your life, hm?” The black figure took several steps back, looking his rival over. “Let’s try this. Persona.”

Joker’s breathing began to quicken, and he watched his clothes and skin turn inky black. He started to see red. His thoughts started to erode. Static. Rage. He needed to kill. His eyes rolled back.

“Holy shit…” Crow sat on the ground watching slack jawed as Joker took a feral stance and locked on to him. Or...was it Joker anymore? No. He was just a husk of a person now. At least in this state. Inky black teeth gnarled. Hands rigid, fingers spaced, eyes glowing ominously yellow. Panting, waiting for command. A puppet. Crow took a long time to just...relish this, and study this state. He’d made lots of people and summons go psychotic, but never a human in Mementos. Never...a _human_. Always a shadow self, or through a veil of sorts. Joker was his first face-to-face psychotic turn in the metaverse. He wasn’t even quite sure if this would work, or what _Call of Chaos_ even did to a human person face-to-face.

“Joker!” called Crow. “Ren Amamiya. Are you there?”

“Yes,” he answered, his voice hollow and emotionless.

“Oh _shit_?” Smirking he stood to circle his rival, looking him over. This scene was grizzly, he wanted to commit every inch of this accomplishment, every second to memory. He unpocketted his phone and snapped a photo. He grinned at it, his heart fluttered. This was delicious; his skin started to tingle with excitement. He was down-right euphoric.

“Joker, are you committing any of this to memory?”

“No.”

“Pity! Pity, pity. I’d _love_ for you to remember this. Joker. Did you think I’d kill you?”

“Yes.”

“ _Really_? You really came down here thinking I’d end you, hm? You’re brave. You really thought you’d die and you came anyway. Do you have friends looking for you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did you text them?”

“No.”

Chuckling he started to walk circles around him again.

“Chaos looks good on you.” No reply. “Hm. Scream, Joker.” Joker let out such a pained shriek that Crow jumped back, startled. The shriek echoed down the dim tunnels until it was quiet again. “Heheh, _damn_." He still couldn't believe _Call of Chaos_ had the power to work like a truth serum. "Tell me, who’s your greatest rival?”

“Makoto Nijima.” Immediately miffed, Crow hit Joker in the chest, who simply stood there.

“So, brutally honest, huh?”

“Yes.”

“ _Why_ did you buy me a 3DS, exactly?”

“I want to play Tetris with Goro Akechi.” Akechi scoffed.

“What is your _endgame_ with me?”

“I want to play Cooking Mama with Goro Akechi.” Akechi had never heard of it. “Is that like...a game?”

“Yes.”

“What console?”

“Many.”

“Fair, fair.” Akechi could ask him anything, ask him to do _anything_ . The possibilities. “So the thing you wanna do with me more than _anything else_ is play this game?”

“Yes.”

“Huh. You’re an odd one. Are you afraid right now?”

“I do not feel emotion.”

“That makes sense. Are you afraid of me? Usually?”

“Moderately.”

“Smart. A little bit of caution will keep you alive. Tell me a secret, Joker.”

“I follow your food blog under a pseudonym.”

“W-what? Hm.” Shaking off embarrassment, he sighed, supposing a lot of people did.

“Do you consider me a friend?”

“No.” Crow stopped in his tracks. That...didn’t feel as good as he thought it would. He took a moment to digest that surprise rejection.

“Why?”

“You don’t like me back.” Oh...he got it. He understood. Joker liked _him_ , but didn’t think that fondness was reciprocated, and Joker didn’t consider them ‘friends’ because of that.

“Do you... _like_ when I visit you at the cafe?”

“Yes.” _Really_? He’d been met with such a cold reception before. He understood why, though.

“Would you have killed me today, Joker?”

“No.” Interesting. Probably because he pitied him.

“Why?”

“Many reasons.”

“Name them, idiot.”

“I desire to become closer to Goro Akechi. I love Goro Akechi. I would never forgive myself if I killed Goro Akechi. I want to win with Goro Akechi. Mementos is not a proper place to die for Goro Akechi. Goro Akechi and I need to stop Masayoshi Shido.” Crow recoiled, and he turned away from the Psychotic Joker still in a dutiful attack stance.

He was right. _They still needed to stop Shido_. And they were going to need each other to do it. Crow knew he couldn’t do it on his own. The Phantom Thieves could probably do it...but it was clear that Joker wanted to win with him on his party. The Thieves might be off their game without their precious leader. He couldn't kill him yet.

“Whyyyy...do you want me on your party?”

“Many—”

“I know I know, name them.”

“Goro Akechi has a desirable skill set. I enjoy my showtime with Goro Akechi. This mission is personal for Goro Akechi. I love Goro Akechi.” He scoffed in disgust. “You keep saying that. What do you mean by that?”

For the first time, Psychotic Joker paused before replying

“I want Goro Akechi to live his best life.” 

“‘My best life?’ What would that even look like?”

“I don’t know.”

“But it involves Cooking Mama?”

“I don’t know.”

Crow sat back down, contemplating, reevaluating. Joker sincerely liked him and wanted to spend time with him, but. Why did he _hate_ that so much?

“I’m jealous,” he admitted to Psychotic Joker. “Everything is so _easy_ for you. You’re brilliant, popular, fun. You have a family, be they foster, and...friends. Is this really a battle you can’t win alone?”

“I do not comprehend.”

“This game. This...whole thing.” Crow motioned to Mementos, to Psychotic Joker. “I’m not stupid. I know there’s power in numbers. Common sense reinforces that notion. I _know_ that, but. I just...can’t trust or be vulnerable like you. _I’m_ the only one I can trust.” It hurt a little, knowing he was basically talking to a wall. “I hate you because you are everything I’m not. You have everything I don’t have. You look so damn happy all the time. We have the same power…but _you_ —” 

**_Jingling._ **

“Hm?” The air around them started to chill. Crow looked around, the Mementos caves started to darken. He got a terrible feeling. He heard a terrible growling echo through the halls.

“Uh...Joker? Is that the...'Death' you all talk about?”

“Yes.”

**_Jingling._ **

“Um...in your opinion...can I beat him alone?”

“No.”

“Can you? In this state?”

“No.”

“Can we together?”

“No.”

**_Jingling._ **

“Uh...Joker. How far away are we from the platform?”

“I don’t know.”

“Shiiit. Shit shit shit. Fuck. Without Mona…” Without Mona they’d have to run. And Crow wasn’t sure how deep in Mementos they were. 

**_Jingling._ **

“Run!” Crow demanded, booking it. Joker lowered into a sprint stance, ran straight ahead at full speed. “No, idiot, follow me!” Joker u-turned and sprinted toward Akechi and when he caught up, slowed to his speed to follow his master’s lead.

“How do you run so fast in those heels?!”

“Practice,” Psychotic Joker said in response.

“Okay okay shut up,” he panted. “If we keep taking all right turns we’ll find the platform eventually! Right?” His raspy voice laughed, terrified.

“Right.”

Right turn. Right turn. Right turn. Right turn. Dodging shadows. Dodging shadows.

Death. They ran past him as fast as Crow could, scraping against the opposite side of the tunnel, managing to not run into him. Right turn. Right turn. “There, Joker!” 

A platform. He ran to it and hopped up, helped Psychotic Joker get up, too. Death followed them into the entrance, menacingly cornered them onto the platform. It growled, waving its guns. Crow backed to the wall, put his back to it, slid down it. Joker stood snarling on high alert facing death, ready for the kill order. Ready to be puppeteered to fight to the Death.

“J-Joker? Are...you in pain?”

“Yes.” Crow winced. “I’ll try to change you back…” He thought for a moment. “Change back,” he ordered. Nothing changed.

“Persona.” Loki hovered by, then descended, simply standing by him. “Loki, how do I change him back?”

“It’s irreversible I think,” Loki responded. “I’ve never tried to make anyone _human_. That’s no fun.”

“Well neither is being slaughtered by Death. Please try. Call of Chaos.”

Nothing changed.

“Re...call of Chaos?”

“What the fuck is that? That’s not a skill I have.”

“What do we _do_ , Loki?”

“Ph. Same thing we always do. Look out for ourselves. Let’s leave him.”

“What, no. We need his _help_. I’m _starving_ I can’t run anymore!”

“Maybe... attack Death from the Platform.”

“Then I’ll be in the belly of Mementos, lost, without SP.” He pointed to the stairs. “These stairs go down, not up. We are—” He was starting to break. “Fucked, aren’t we?”

“I’ve never known you to give up, but I don’t see a way out of this. Call me if you need me.” Loki dissipated. 

Joker started to choke, he trembled, heaved, vomited. It splattered on the platform concrete, tinted red. Then he went back to attack stance, rigid, still grinding his teeth, ready for the kill order. Crow took a step back, horrified. 

“Joker please relax!”

“I don’t comprehend.”

“Joker…” He’d pushed his benevolent rival away yet again, and now they were in this mess. If only he could just allow himself to...let Joker love him.

Defeated and hapless, he laid down on the chilled concrete. He’d racked his brain for ideas for what felt like hours. He was weak from hunger, had a killer migraine. Joker had items that cured hunger in his inventory, but. He’d skipped lunch too. It didn’t seem right to feel better when Joker couldn’t. Crow figured they deserved to suffer together.

**~~~~~**

Crow woke to a repeated pap on his cheek. 

“HEY! Wake up asshole!” Crow sat up, disoriented, weak, his whole body hurt. Was it a dream? No. It certainly wasn’t. Mona, Fox, Skull, and Noir were calamitously fighting Death; Panther, and Queen were throwing anything and everything at Joker to get him back. Tearfully, Oracle hovered over Crow. Joker still stood on the edge of the platform, waiting for a fight to kill order that would never come. Blood was trickling from his mouth, he was still inky black from head to toe, but his eyes were half mast, his face wasn’t twisted with enthusiastic hatred anymore. It was more of a weak, dutiful determination. Oracles goggles couldn’t stop her tears or her look of dread. 

“Please! He’s dying! Please help us Crow!”

“How long have you been down here?” Panther asked, unwrapping a big bang burger and offering it to Crow, who pushed it away.

“Eat it. We need you. We need to figure this out together.” Begrudgingly Crow took it. Then devoured it.

“We…” the static in his head started to quiet after eating. “Came here about...two o’clock on Saturday.”

The team all looked at each other in horror. “What…” Crow took out his phone, it was dead.

“It’s noon Sunday,” Panther whispered shakily. Crow grew even paler at the thought. “Mona can’t use a phone, he had to walk to Futaba’s to let her know Joker hadn’t come home last night. He last said he was going to meet you in Akihabara,” Panther mumbled.

“I couldn’t even track his phone! I was so worried,” Oracle chimed in. "But when there was no signal after several tries I thought...Mementos?”

“Apt...deduction,” Crow managed to mumble, still too weak to stand on his own.

“Crow, how do you change Joker back?” Panther asked.

“I can’t. I tried.”

“There’s _got_ to be a way!” Oracle insisted.

“P...persona...” he managed to choke out, and Loki appeared again. “Tell them…”

“I can’t do it,” Loki admitted in a regretful voice. "I don’t have a skill that facilitates that need.” He dissipated again. Just at that moment, the team defeated Death, and looked helplessly at the unimproved scene on the platform.

“Joker is so rigid! We can’t move him,” Panther begged.

“Joker get in the van,” Crow demanded. Mona turned into a van immediately, and Joker, shakily, began to move away from the pool of vomit he was standing in. Queen tried to help steady him, but he moved as if there was nothing in the world except for him and that van.

“C’mon, Crow,” Panther sighed.

“...you’re taking me?”

“Well...yeah. Come on we gotta go now.”

“Even after—”

“Yes, _come on_!”

“Forgive me, but...why?”

“It takes two to tango, Crow. You couldn’t have _dragged_ Joker here, he’s too strong. He must have come to spar you of his own free will. You’re both idiots, and we’re taking both of you home. So get in the cat bus.”

Crow was helped into the middle, sitting between Fox and Skull, who both were turned away from him. It hurt a little, but that was completely fair. Joker sat in the front seat, needing extra space because of his rigid-sorta-sitting-down battle stance.

Haru sat in the front seat, driving nervously, but she was doing really well.

The air was heavy, it was silent. They could only hear the engine and the creaking gnash of Joker’s teeth.

At the Mementos Entrance, Crow had an idea.

He looked at the red door to the Velvet room... He hated that place. He vowed to never go in again, but. He owed Joker one.

“I’m gonna...I’m gonna try something. Please, give me a little time,” he mumbled weakly.

He walked to Caroline, who carried a glowing typewriter under her arm. She wore formal red clothing. 

“Please help Joker. You can, right?”

“You want things from us? After you skipped parole duties?”

“Yes…?”

“Step inside, defendant.”

Akechi walked into the velvety red courthouse, sitting at his designated defendant desk. Caroline, a stenographer, sat down to type anything said, Justine a bailiff. 

“Welcome back to the velvet room, trickster,” An eerily deep voice greeted, sending shivers down Crow’s spine.

“All rise!” Justine demanded, and Crow did, for Igor to step out and sit in the Judge’s seat, Crow sat after.

Crow technically had duties, but they were grayed out and chained. He couldn’t summon, he couldn’t fuse. He couldn’t do anything...except ask.

“Justine, Caroline. Please help Joker. I turned him psychotic, and he’s dying. You rule over power, right?” Caroline typed away, Justine glared. 

“Privileges and mercy are only for those who are in compliance with their duties, delinquent!” Justine shouted.

“I get that. What do I need to do to get back into compliance?”

“Here,” Caroline snatched a golden piece of paper from her typewriter, offered it to Justine, who set it before the defendant.

He read the demands, his stomach churned and he had to physically turn away from it.

“I’ll do it.”

“Hahahaha,” Igor mused. “My, my. Turning away from delinquency after all these years. Tell me, why do you want to save Joker?”

“I...need his help to defeat Shido.” Justine and Caroline looked at each other unconvinced. “Just...just give me a damn pen already.” Justine slapped it on his desk, and Crow signed the contract.

“After you complete your first duty, we’ll unlock the compendium,” Caroline noted gently.

“Yeah yeah fuck all that. Please heal Joker now.”

“Alright, alright,” Justine rolled her eyes, walking down the courthouse aisle toward the entrance of the velvet room.

Crow and Justine emerged from out of nowhere, and the The Phantom Thieves looked bewildered to see the little girl. She raised her baton, standing on her toes, and the inky black started to fade from his skin and clothes, and his eyes stopped glowing yellow. Joker collapsed immediately.

“I got this! Zorro!” _Samarecarm_. Joker’s eyes fluttered open, Oracle screamed with relief, then dove into his chest. The Thieves all knelt to hug Joker, a few cried. Joker was still bleeding from the mouth, and he looked weak.

“We’ll be seeing you, delinquent,” Justine reminded Crow, laughing and returning back to the Velvet Room.

Crow was again in a room of people, feeling incredibly alone. Rubbing his arm, he started to make his way to Mementos’ entrance alone.

“Crow?” Joker asked weakly. “We’re not done here.” Crow stopped walking just outside Mementos’ entrance.

“I...don’t belong here.”

“Wait, just…” Joker swam out of his pile of friends. “I just wanted to say. I don’t know what exactly happened. But...uh. Thanks for not killing me. I’m sure you could have. You won, right?”

“It was a draw.”

“Well that’s no good. Rematch?”

“ _God_ no.” Crow couldn’t help but laugh despite himself.

“Well, okay. You’re dismissed.” Joker offered a bloody smile, one of his canines and incisors visibly cracked. At that Crow left.

**Dec. 3rd**

Akechi went about his business for a few days. He went to classes. He went to work. He went home. He visited the jazz club alone.

No one from the Phantom Thieves contacted him. Not even Ren. Every so often the thieves would chat on the group chat he was a part of. Apparently Ren had to go to the hospital for a blood transfusion and exhaustion, but he went home after a day or so. At least he could keep tabs on the group.

They probably had a chat log without him where they talked shit, though.

After that event loneliness wasn't hitting the same. He used to flourish alone. He started to worry that the Thieves weren’t taking him on missions anymore. He didn’t blame them. He took out his phone and looked at the photo he’d snapped of Psychotic Joker. Only the trauma and helplessness from the night filled his chest when he looked at that photo.

And every night when he lied down to go to sleep he entered the courthouse velvet room, being hounded to make progress toward getting back in compliance with his duties. The walls, seats, lighting searing red, the twins' disappointed yellow eyes burned into him every single night. It felt like falling into hell every time he closed his eyes to go to sleep. 

He even tried simply _not_ sleeping, he made it a day and a half before he passed out at the police station at his desk with a coffee still in his hands, and felt ill the rest of the day.

It was no way to live.

In his next food blog post, he wrote a short, vague, pictureless review of the Maid Cafe in Akihabara. He put in a code, every sentence starting with one of the letters of “I NEED YOUR HELP.”

Surely... Ren would notice? Could he pick up on a secret code if he wasn’t told to look for one?

The election was two weeks away. Shido would be Prime Minister if they didn’t steal his heart. Akechi was getting antsy, and he couldn’t wait for Ren to make first contact anymore.

The bell rang as Akechi walked into LeBlanc in the evening. Futaba and Joker were there. 

Futaba glowered at him, Joker gave a small wave.

“Your order?”

“The usual, please.” He walked to Futaba in the booth. “May I sit with you?”

“Yeah, but I’m not feelin’ chatty.”

“That’s alright.” He took off his backpack and set it next to her. “H-how are you both?”

“Wellness check, huh? Took you long enough.” She continued to type on her laptop. “I’m applying to school. Crushin’ some prerequisites. It’s pretty daunting,” Futaba informed. “And I reconnected with an old friend! Ren helped. I never thought I’d be able to do it.”

“Well if you have any tips…” Akechi mumbled grimly.

“Haha, friendship expert Futaba at your service! We both know you ~could use it~. My friends gave me a crash course in social relevance. It was so hard, but I did it.”

“A crash course...in social relevance…?”

“Jeez! That’s what I said!” After a huff she continued. “Maybe we can do the same for you? You seem pretty bad at social stuff too.”

“I’m a great public speaker?”

“But you have no _friends_. Real life ones. Internet friends _sooorta_ count, but ultimately if I’m better at social stuff than you, you’re sad, bro.” Her words cut like a knife, but she was right. “Reeen! We should take Akechi to the beach!”

“It’s Winter, sis,” Ren reminded gently.

“Oh yeah…”

“And I’ve been busy,” Ren answered from across the counter, looking handsome in his apron and pouring steaming water slowly over coffee grounds for Akechi, the aroma nearly intoxicating. “Got a lot of friends, a lot of jobs,” He continued. “I uh...swallowed some tooth shards and blood that day. It was hard on my body for a few days after and my teeth are all fucked up now...I’m scheduled for some dental work. But other than that things are pretty much the same.”

Akechi grimaced when he spoke about his teeth. That was rough.

“How’ve you been, Akechi?”

“Feeling...guilty,” He admitted.

“I see. Don’t. I was going to beat you within an inch of your life. You just got to me first.” He walked around the counter and set Akechi’s coffee on the table. “Fair and square. I got careless.” Ren smiled with his mouth closed. That was new. He walked away to get the curry, and Akechi admired him as he did— then he received a sharp kick from Futaba under the table. Also fair. Blushing he took a sip of his coffee, looking away. Damn, he couldn’t even sneak looks on his day off.

“So what’s in the bag? I’ve never seen you use a backpack,” Futaba insisted.

“Homework and...video games.”

“Ooooh,” she grinned, closing her laptop, her interest piqued. “Show me. Are you an MMO guy? I bet you are~ Bet you have a raid group. Bet your character is a furry. I bet—”

Akechi pulled Wii Remotes out of his bag, shutting up Futaba’s train of thought.

“Uh...what the fuck? Really Akechi?”

“Not what you expected?”

“Akechi…” she shook her head, cringing. “God, what’s next? Mario Tennis?” And he pulled out a hard copy disk of Cooking Mama. 

**_Crash!_ **

Ren had dropped Akechi’s plate of curry on the floor, the plate cracked.

“ _I’ll get that_ ,” he said quickly, rushing off to grab a broom. Akechi couldn’t help but smile. Did he want to play this dumb game _that bad_? 

“Your TV is a CRT TV, correct?”

“Yes, yes it is,” Ren replied, sweeping.

“Can we play? I understand if you’re busy—”

“I’ll make time. Just gimme a bit.”

Futaba’s eyebrows were raised.

“Damn I wanna play…”

“The case says it’s Multiplayer, so the more the merrier.”

“Cool, I’ll help you set it up upstairs.” She led him.

Ren walked another plate of curry upstairs and handed it to Akechi. 

“I’ve been craving this for days.” Ren smiled wide, then closed his mouth to smile, embarrassed. “Me too, and I work here.”

Akechi loved cooking mama. It started out slow, but soon the three were super into it. Chopping, swinging their Wii remotes, cooking meals together. Akechi noted some recipes he wanted to try to make at home, and some techniques to try when cooking. Futaba got really into it too, but not as much as Ren who tried using two Wii Remotes at once. 

Futaba’s phone beeped.

“Haah! Anime!” It was dark outside now, they’d played for hours. “Gonna make like a ball and roll out. I can’t miss this new episode. Akechi! No funny business. Bye!” She waved and flitted down the stairs.

“Funny Business?” Ren asked. Akechi shrugged in response. Ren smiled warmly, turning off the TV, and sat on the couch next to Akechi. “So...you needed my help with something?”

“So you saw it.”

“You could have just messaged me.”

“I’m sure you can imagine how hard it is for me to ask for help.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that you could have just messaged me. What do you need help with?”

Akechi sucked in his lips, and he didn’t respond for a while.

“Out with it,” Ren insisted.

“Shut up I’m working on it! I—” his voice got caught in his throat. “When—” caught in his throat.

“Oh my god are you actually _physically_ incapable of asking for help?” Ren beamed, incredibly amused. He covered his mouth to hide his teeth as he laughed.

“Urgh…” Akechi could feel himself starting to get hot. He knew he was blushing.

“Here.” Ren took out his phone. “Just text it to me.”

“No I just...want…” Akechi’s heart rate picked up. Joker pointed his phone’s camera at Akechi.

“A-are you filming?!”

“I’m so sorry this is just too funny. You made me swallow my teeth so just let me have this.” Akechi started to tremble with anger and embarrassment. “ _Please_ just say it and put yourself out of your misery.” Akechi growled, then took a few deep breaths.

“I—” caught in his throat.

“Oh my god,” Joker chuckled. “I believe in you, Goro!”

“I—in order to save you from the Psychotic state I,” he looked down, needing a breath or two, “I—I…” another breath. “Made a deal with th-the velvet room attendants t-t-to do w-wildcard duties.” He said it. “But I...have...too many hang-ups. I request your help. Please…” He closed his eyes. “ ** _...train me to be a proper wildcard_**.”

“Ah.” Joker was still recording, nearly crying at how funny this was. “Sorry I didn’t _quite_ catch that. Can you say that just one more time?”

Akechi’s eyes shot back open and it took everything in him to not lunge at Joker and slap that phone out of his hands. But he was asking for help. He obliged.

“ _Please train me to be a proper wildcard_ ,” he asked through clenched teeth. Ren ended the recording.

“Okay.”

“You’ll do it?”

“Yeah. We start now.”

“N-now? No, I’m too tired and I need to get back home.” He stood up. So did Ren. 

“I wanna stay over.”

“ _No_.”

“Yes, as part of your training I get to see your house.” Akechi exhaled shakily. Was this what being vulnerable was like? Letting people into his private space? 

Well...he _was_ currently in Ren’s bedroom. 

“ _Fine_. But you’re on the couch.”

**~~~~~**

“Kichijoji, hm?”

“Yep.” Akechi held the door open for Ren and led him through the apartment building he lived in. Ren waited a bit to see if Akechi was gonna volley conversation. He really loved monologuing, but hated talking about himself otherwise.

“Okay...what do you _like_ about Kichijoji?” Akechi sighed, still walking.

“Uh...the street food? Everything really.” He was really taking Ren up to his apartment. This was happening. No one in his life knew where he lived, he’d never taken anyone home until…

He turned to look at Ren, his soft curls bouncing as he walked, Ren turned and smiled warmly at him—then closed his mouth to smile—blushing bashfully.

“Your teeth? They’re not so bad. Your smile’s still nice.” 

“Oh...thanks!” Ren smiled wider. Akechi looked away embarrassed, searching for his keys.

“So...I need to prepare the apartment before you go in. I have stuff all over the place—”

“You should just let me in,” Ren insisted. “We’re practicing being honest and vulnerable here—”

“N-no, I have some _case files_ laying around, and I need to lock them up to be HIPPA compliant.”

“Oh. HIPPA. Gotcha. Okay I’ll wait.”

Akechi exhaled, unlocked the door, slid in quickly.

“Oh let me see your keys!” Ren held out his hand insistently. Frowning, Akechi dropped his key ring in Ren’s hands then closed the door.

While Ren admired his key chain, Akechi surveyed his apartment in a sweaty urgency, and bolted around trying to hide anything he didn’t want Ren to see.

As fast as he could he yanked down the picture and pushpin murder-boards on his walls, he shoved cute sushi plushies under his bed, he threw some of his dirty dishes in the dishwasher, he ran to his bathroom to hide his porn, he closed the laptop on his desk, he snatched the incriminating Phantom Thieves evidence he’d been collecting and threw it in a metal tin, he threw his guns in a lock box.

“Uh...Goro?” Ren asked from the other side of the door.

“Just wait, _okay_?!” He picked up some street food trash from the day before and threw it away. He shoved his window open to air out the place, he snatched his to do list off of his desk and tried to tap it into his shredder— but it wasn’t plugged in, so he just fucking _ate it_.

Feeling the scratchy, crumpled paper fight going down his esophagus, he opened the door to let Ren in with a queasy smile, and hiccups.

“Your hiccups are cute, sir.” Akechi’s smile tapped out of existence. “For some reason...I don’t think you _only_ put away client documents...” He stepped in, looking around. “Huh! Nice place! Here’s your keys back.” He handed them over. “Your strawberry key chain—do you just really like strawberries?”

“Yeah, my...mom made it for me.”

“Hmm,” He mused looking around. “Is this your mom?” Ren pointed to a picture of Goro, a few years younger looking awestruck to be standing with a distinguished looking masculine person with a feminine face.

“No...that’s…” He should have hidden it. “The original Detective Prince. Naoto Shirogane.”

“Oh! I’ve never heard of him. Tell me about him?” 

Akechi grew to look really pained, and he tensed up. Joker almost wanted to retract the request, but knew this story might be really important to help Akechi with his rehabilitation.

“My mom died, and I had nowhere to go. I was being processed for Foster care at the police station and Shirogane-san happened to be there. I didn’t know who they were, though. My mother’s death was…" he paused. "An...what we like to call an ‘open-and-shut case’. I complied with all the detectives, helped them out a lot, got praise. Sometimes the detectives would miss really obvious things in their cases I’d happen to hear, and I’d tip them off and give suggestions. I kept coming around the police station because I had nothing better to do and I felt safe there. It felt good to help, I wanted to be an ally of Justice. Shirogane-san took a liking to me. They said they’d been watching me, said I reminded them of themself. Offered to show me the ropes, and I couldn’t have been happier. Mind you, I already had my persona power by then.”

Ren sat on Akechi’s bed to listen. He nodded.

“Go on.” 

“Shirogane-san took me around, showed me off, let me in on some cases I probably had no business being on. After a while they made sure I was getting paid for my detective work, and let me stay at the hotel they were staying at. They paid for a room next to theirs, we were hotel neighbors for a few months. We’d meet mornings and talk cases over continental breakfast. Now that I think about it that must’ve been expensive...I have no idea how they afforded that, but they knew I didn’t like my foster parents. It was a dream to be so close to Shirogane-san, and have my own space away from foster care. I helped solve a case and was asked to do an interview. My first TV interview Shirogane-san was in the front row.” Akechi gave a weak smile, remembering. “The hosts praised me, asked about my experiences, asked me for any details I could share while still being HIPPA compliant. They asked about Shirogane-san and asked if I was the next-generation Detective Prince. I was, ya know, embarrassed, and I looked over at Shirogane-san and they were giving me two big thumbs up and nodding. I said I was.” Akechi started laughing, but it was an incredibly dismal laugh. “I trusted them. After that I hinted about my persona, and Shirogane-san— to my surprise— understood exactly what I was talking about and filled in the gaps. They were...excited to see my skill. Which was weird? But exciting. Shirogane asked me to show them my persona, so I activated the app and brought them to Shido’s palace. It was the first palace I found on my own.

“My outfit changed...Shirogane’s didn’t. We both summoned, I showed ‘em Loki. They showed me...their persona. It was small, and weird looking. They asked me about the app, but I didn’t have any answers. It felt like...no I’m _sure_ Shirogane was judging me, though. My outfit, Loki. They were skittish about it, but pretending they were fine. The way we summoned was different. Everything was different but it was the same power. We ended up fighting a shadow. Shirogane was so cool, they had instant kill magic. I showed off my skill set— I summoned shadows, turned them psychotic, had them fight other shadows. It was pretty grizzly but I was into it? I showed ‘em _negative pile_ , I showed ‘em my _megido_ skills.” He sighed. “We went back to reality and I could tell Naoto...was afraid of me. They acted completely different and couldn’t meet my gaze. And it fucking _hurt_. They stopped talking to me, stopped meeting with me. Moved on to another police station eventually. And that was it.” 

Akechi turned around to face Ren.

“I’m their _legacy_ , and they won’t even _speak_ to me because they were freaked out by _Call of Chaos_.”

“You two never spoke again?”

“No, no I guess we talk sometimes. But it’s all business. We strictly talk about cases. They never ask about persona, or how I’m doing. They never offer to meet up, they’ll only give me advice over the phone.”

Ren frowned, sympathizing.

“Don’t look at me like that!” Ren grabbed a pillow and put it in front of his face. Akechi laughed a little. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you.” He took a framed picture off of his dresser and handed it to Ren. “ _This_ is my mom.”

>You got her good looks.

>How did Shido get _her_?

>>She looks nice.

  
  


“Oh...she’s beautiful.” 

“She was, inside and out.” He took the picture back and placed it in its designated place.

“Can I say something about your Shirogane story?”

“You uh… don’t have to. You’re going to say that _Call of Chaos_ is a terrifying and deadly skill and that Naoto had the right to self preserve and leave, right?”

“...well. Yeah.”

“Well I know that _now_. But, even now I have to admit I could have benefited from an astute mentor. I’m not like you, I didn’t warp into the metaverse with a _friend_. My skill was all I knew. I didn’t know it was unusual.” Even though Akechi was hurt, he was quite level-headed and self aware of the situation.

“Hm. Want a hug?” Akechi looked at him as if he’d spoken another language. 

“No.”

“Come get this hug, Akechi!” Ren opened his arms at Akechi who took a step back and looked around, seemingly looking for a place to escape. “Dude it’s just a hug. I swear I won’t stab you or anything.”

“I’m not ready for that!” Ren stood, still offering.

“Are you sure? Pleeease? Just once?” Akechi looked so defeated, so conflicted. “What if I called it training?”

“I still don’t want one.” 

“Okay.” Akechi clutched his chest for a moment, feeling lightheaded. Why was he like this? He hadn’t been hugged or touched tenderly in years. Why did the idea of being enveloped in someone’s arms feel like such a goddamn threat? Just the thought of Ren’s chest pressed against his— just the mere thought of the slightly shorter man’s chin matching the curvature of his shoulder and neck…

"One more question...you said Shido's ship was the _first_ palace you found…"

"You noticed."

"How many...did you find?"

"Give me a moment, please." He quickly calculated the pros and cons of sharing this information with Ren, then decided it wouldn't hurt his agenda to share. He took a black journal off of his desk, snapped off the elastic, then handed it to Ren. "Just short of two hundred sixty palaces."

"Whoa." Ren flipped through the lined notebook; there were (amazing?) sketches, key words, locations, names. 

"I've known about Nijima San's palace, I knew about Madarame's, and I knew about Kaneshiro's. Just about everyone I meet or hear about I run them by the app."

"That makes sense."

"But I _didn't_ know about Mementos. When you brought me there I was so impressed with you all, but I immediately realized a palace of the collective unconscious could be exploited. I saw how unstable and vulnerable it was."

"What...do you mean?"

"Is it not obvious, Amamiya?"

"Uhm…" Holy shit. If a persona-user who had a powerful spell that could affect the mind or emotional, physical, or spiritual affect of something or someone, such as Akechi's _Call of Chaos_ , was powerful enough it could effect the entire population of Tokyo. Ren's eyes bulged in realization.

"By the look on your face, I can tell you understand. The Phantom Thieves were picking off small targets, trying to get popular, trying to help a _cat_ get its _memories back_ , but playing with forces that had the potential to make or break the world as we know it. It was like watching someone try to drive a nail into a dilapidated house with a brick of gold capable of buying the entire city." Ren had never come to this realization. Mementos needed to be protected.

"But...we're the only ones who know about mementos, right?"

"Your views on things are myopic, Amamiya. That confidence will end you. I already told you Shirogane-san was a persona-user. Scientists with no personas have done research on the metaverse. They may find a way to artificially enter, or hack the app like I'm assuming Futaba Sakura did?" Futaba didn't hack the MetaNav, but Akechi's phone itself. Either way, Akechi'd since gotten a new phone. Probably best not to elaborate in case they needed to use that strategy again.

"I see what you're saying."

"Good. _Anyone_ can be a persona user. Don't underestimate anyone." Akechi paused for a moment, then continued. "Has anyone tried talking to you about psychology, or the metaverse?" Akechi's gaze was accusatory. He was _expecting_ an answer. Ren had to think. He scrolled through his mental rolodex of confidants until…

"Dr. Maruki." Akechi gave an upnod to his notebook, and Ren flipped through it until he found Maruki's name.

"Holy shit, Akechi." Akechi had the name, location, but not the distortion, so it was a relatively small entry. "I can't believe Dr. Maruki…"

"Trusting people makes you blind. I've known about Maruki since your school's **festival**. I ran _all_ of your school's personnel through the NavApp."

"Why? Worried about me?" Akechi's face went blank with a smidge of irritation.

"Why _wouldn't_ you, Ren? You have the technology. After Kamoshida I would have MetaNav vetted _everyone_ at that sorry excuse of a school." He took his notebook back, pointing at it. " _Every_ politician, _every_ police officer in Tokyo, _every_ business owner, _every_ local celebrity, _every_ time a report was filed to the police department, _every_ author of a scientific study published with subject matter even **_remotely_ ** related to cognitive psience."

"You are dedicated, Akechi. I should have figured. After the mental breakdowns of people like my principal, and transit workers. Wait...did that transit worker have a palace?"

"A small one. Walked through it in twenty minutes. I need to know who is and isn't a threat if I'm going to. You know. Do what I do in the metaverse."

"Akechi," Ren laid back on Akechi's bed, his shirt hiking a little, showing off some skin. Akechi noticed. "You need a vacation, Akechi."

"What I need is sleep, get off my bed now."

Ren got up and looked around.

“Hey, Goro. I thought you said you had a couch?”

“I lied.”

“Where am I going to sleep…” Akechi smirked. 

“The porch.” Ren turned around, lowering into battle stance. 

“I’ll fight you for the bed.” Akechi smiled, lowering into battle stance also.

“Fine by me...except I have a futon you can use.”

“Oh.”

“I sometimes like to sleep a little lower to the ground. I’d like your help pulling it out of storage.” Akechi ran his hand suavely through his hair, smirking, and he led Ren down the hall.

Akechi treated his living room like a studio; his desk, dining room table, filing cabinets and bed were there, but they passed a bedroom. The door was shut.

“Can I look in here?” Ren asked, pointing.

“Sure, but make it quick.”

It was a room full of...stuff. Plushies, gifts, a desk covered in mail.

“Whoa…” Ren breathed.

“If there’s anything in there you want you can have it. So many things get sent to my PO Box, I hardly have time to admire it all. I try to answer most of my fan-mail, though.”

“A stack of signed pictures of yourself?”

“I send them to fans who write to me.”

“Can I have this mini cactus?”

“Sure.”

“I wanna signed photo, too.”

“Go for it.”

“I’m gonna throw darts at it.”

“Rude,” but Akechi laughed at the idea.

“Hey Akechi...do you have any questions for me? You’ve told me a lot about yourself, so.”

“How are your grades?

“Top of the class.”

“Really?" He folded his arms, impressed. "Do you have college plans?”

“I’m mostly just focusing on Phantom Thieves stuff, trying to stay out of Juvie. How old are you, Akechi?”

“Eighteen.”

“Huh. I thought you were my age.”

“Not sure how to respond to that. Okay times up, you can look in the morning.” Ren stood and walked past Akechi with a bright smile.

“I love this cactus. Thank you.” 

“Um hm.” Feeling flustered, he turned off the light.

“Wow!” Ren stepped into Akechi’s bathroom. “Oho, you have GOT to let me use your shower.”

“No.”

“It’s been _forever_ since I got to shower. I always have to bathe in public.”

“Keep bathing in public, then.”

The two hauled the futon out of storage and into the living room. Akechi supplied Ren with blankets and a pillow and they settled in their beds.

“Akechi. **_You’ve made one fatal mistake_** ,” Ren’s deep voice sounded from the floor; Akechi scooted over to see what Ren was talking about and Ren was cuddling one of the sushi plushies he’d stuffed under his bed, turned away from him. “Tamago sushi has chosen me.”

“Those were just ...fan gifts.”

“That you stuffed under your bed. Good night, Goro.”

Akechi didn’t respond. Not out of irritation that Ren had found his plushie stash...but. No one had told him ‘good night, Goro’ since his mother. He felt his eyes starting to water.

At the silence, Ren rolled over just in time to see Akechi turn away from him and lay back down.

“Akechi, what am I going to do? Everything smells like you.”

“Simple, hold your breath.” 

Ren snorted, taking off his glasses for the night. 

“Don’t know what kind of answer I was expecting. It’s not a bad smell though.”

Akechi didn’t wear cologne. He started thinking about it and got curious.

“What do I smell like?”

“Kinda like... sunflowers that have been rescued from a sewer.”

Akechi couldn’t help but hum a tired laugh. He laid there, chuckling to himself, turned away from Ren.

“Hey, Amamiya.”

“Hm.”

“I don’t hate you.”

Ren took a moment to digest that.  
He figured, but. Something inside him felt reassured now. 

“I’m glad.”

**Dec. 4th**

In the morning Akechi opened his apartment door as quietly as he could, peeking in. Ren was still sleeping next to his plushie on the floor.

Akechi closed the door quietly, and started to set up breakfast. Ren awoke when Akechi set the plates down. He sat up, bed hair more messy than usual.

“Damn what time is it.”

“Seven.” 

“God, Akechi…” Sighing, he rubbed his eyes. “I should have known you were a morning person.”

“Well, yes, but also my favorite croquette place runs out of croquettes minutes after they’re made. I wanted to eat them still warm.” He wanted Ren to try them mostly. "Also the velvet room twins are harassing me so it's hard to sleep." 

He watched Ren get up and scoot onto the chair across him at the small dining table he had. His eyes were downcast behind his glasses, looking pensive.

“Akechi, how did you know about Cooking Mama? And me not thinking that you liked me.”

Goro’s upbeat mood soured. He finished placing the croquettes on plates, and sat down.

“I’m assuming your suspicions are correct, I got it out of you in Mementos.” Ren poked at the crispy flakes of his meal. “You’re feeling violated, yes?” Ren nodded. "I was pretty sure I was gonna end you, I thought it'd be a non-issue." Ren nodded again. The guilt started to creep in for Goro. Goddamn it. He wasn't quite sure what to do.

"So...you turned me psychotic, then interrogated me."

"You were... about to succumb to despair. Figured since you were dead meat anyway, I'd test how _Call of Chaos_ worked on humans. Turns out humans turn into...puppets...for lack of a better word. You were ready to fight and die for me, and listened to my orders, and spoke the truth. You, Amamiya, were still in there...somewhere. In the back seat of your own mind." Ren looked a little more pale than usual, and Akechi's stomach turned. Ren had the same expression Shirogane had years ago. 

Fear, but trying to hold it together. Then Shirogane left...the next time they had the chance.

Appetite ruined, he set down his croquette.

Was Ren going to leave? Ren seemed so strong, so sure of himself in everything he did. But in the end, he was afraid of him too. _Was he going to leave?_

Akechi felt cold, heart breaking. He couldn't go through that again.

He hated people. All of them. What was the point of making bonds if they were only going to _leave_ as soon as he started to open up?

"What did you make me do?" Ren demanded, accusingly. 

"Nothing disrespectful." This was it. Ren was for sure going to leave. He'd even bought these damn croquettes.

"What _else_ did you ask me?"

"It's… a little hard to remember at this point. You said Makoto Nijima was your greatest rival. _That_ felt great," Akechi rolled his eyes, and the corners of Ren’s mouth turned up just slightly, he threw his hands into his wavy hair and tousled it, thinking about his feelings toward Makoto for a moment.

"Huh. I guess she is. Matching Makoto is a more realistic goal."

" _What_."

"I mean, she's just a genius aikido and kickboxing master. I can match that with some effort. You're a celebrity, and honor student at the stop of his detective career. At _eighteen_ , Akechi. _And_ you've had persona for two years longer than I. You have your own apartment and thousands of adoring fans. I wouldn't even know where to begin to even try to rival you."

Akechi wanted to get off this emotional roller coaster ride. Would he...stay? Would he…

“What else did you ask me.”

“What are you _worried_ that I asked you? That would be easier, Amamiya.”

Ren blushed slightly, flustered. Sighing he got up, walked toward Akechi's bed, grabbed his backpack, and started toward the front door. Akechi froze— going numb— and immediately unfroze when Ren simply passed the front door and walked into his bathroom.

The detective held his breath, staring into space, doing his best to acknowledge the moment of sheer panic he had and trying to unpack those complex feelings— but he got distracted when he heard his shower start.

“Hey! I said no shower Amamiya!”

All he heard was the lock on his bathroom door click.

Great. Now Ren was naked in his house, probably looking at his bathtub ring. Looking at his toiletries and bathsoaps trying to figure out how he smelled like sunflowers from the sewer or whatever the fuck he said the night before.

He was pretty sure Ren was going to be the death of him.

He pulled his laptop out to—mostly look busy. But he eventually got into it, answering e-mails and checking reposts on his blog, comments on the Phansite, checked on hybrid-online school. 

“‘Kechi, can I have a towel?” Ren's voice called from down the hall.

“No, fuck you, air dry.”

“Okay if you _insist_ —” Ren replied, making it clear that was a threat. The bathroom door opened, steam escaped into the hall.

“ **_Nonono wait_ **, I’ll get you one.” Akechi tripped out of his chair and he rushed to his linen closet snatching a towel down, and offered it into the bathroom, head turned away.

“Thank you.” Ren took the towel and closed the door gently.

Lips pursed, he took a moment to reflect on how he was being jerked around his own home by his rival. He regretted how he’d lost any semblance of control over his life. Flustered and irked, he went back to his laptop.

A freshly bathed Ren emerged from the bathroom fully clothed. Black hair slicked back with water, smelling like Akechi’s bath soap, his glasses gone. Ren sat next to Akechi at the dining table. The heat emanating off of Ren was making Akechi’s arm hair stand on end. His slicked hair...gave him an entirely different look. Ren smirked at Akechi, who had to avert his eyes in his panic.

“I thought about it and decided to drop the last conversation. I suppose it doesn’t really matter if you know my secrets. It’s more your burden than mine, to be honest.”

Akechi dared to meet Ren’s gaze. And, yep. He was gorgeous, especially with this mature, damp look. But Ren's expression was complex, Akechi couldn’t read it. Mischievous? Daring?

“So, tell me. What kinds of things do you need to do for Caroline and Justine?”

Lips pursed again, Akechi closed his laptop, slowly.

“I need to make a bond.” Akechi looked troubled. 

“...just one?”

“There’s more, but...we’ll start there. That’s something you can help with.”

“Hm.” Ren thought. Did Akechi really not have any bonds? Anywhere? Not even at work?

“Is it surprising?” Akechi asked.

"No. You're fake as hell. Even if you did have a connection it wouldn't be a sincere one, would it?" Akechi popped another croquette in his mouth.

"Guess not."

"Wait, what does your velvet room look like?"

"...you first."

They both explained their situations.

Akechi had a red velvet room in the form of a courthouse.

Amamiya had a blue velvet room in the shape of a literal prison.

"Seems like _you're_ the one that needs a vacation, Amamiya."

"Haha, yes please. Where we goin'?"

Akechi took a moment to realize Ren was serious.

"Oh you... actually want to go somewhere? With me? Today?"

"Why not, I'm not in school right now. Let's take training on the road." 

"I...have a driver's license. And I'm old enough to rent a car…"

"Perfect! Where do you want to go, Akechi? It's cold, but it's not raining or snowing today."

Akechi's heart swelled as he thought of the possibilities.

**~~~~~**

At the rental car shop Akechi nervously looked over options. The rental car shop workers bustled about, and some asked for pictures of the Detective Prince, but were ultimately pretty respectful.

"This one?" Akechi asked Ren as he pointed to a current year, mid tier Mazda. Ren was looking over his shoulder.

"How about this one?" Ren pointed to a sexy MX-5 Miata convertible.

"That's one's considerably more expensive with a higher insurance—"

"Not a problem, Goro." Ren pulled out his fat wallet, it made a thud as it hit the counter. Looking over the paperwork casually, he counted out large bills that easily covered the convertible for the day, gas, as well as the most expensive and comprehensive insurance policy. "I got this. All you have to do is drive and not kill us." He smiled, cracked teeth and all, at Akechi as he counted out a small fraction of his cash, then tucked the rest into his wallet. 

Palefaced, the rental agent dangled the keys in front of Akechi.

The agents showed Akechi the features of the car, asked if they had any questions before the two took off.

"How do you put the top down," Ren asked, pushing buttons until he figured it out. The sun spilled through the crack onto the boys until the roof of the car was tucked neatly behind the backseats. "Oh...this too." Ren turned on the heated seats. Akechi blushed as his buns started to warm, and it was decadent.

"To Chiba!" 

Akechi took a deep breath, and put the key in the ignition. He peeled off the lot at about fifteen miles an hour. Ren looked around confused for a second at why they were going so slow. 

A little anticlimactic.

"You're navigator," Akechi insisted, Ren nodded and pulled out his phone.

Slowly, as he got comfortable, Akechi started to speed up to the speed limit.

"You're doing great!" Ren exclaimed, beaming.

"Uh huh," Akechi agreed, easing his white knuckle grip on the steering wheel. He hadn't driven since acing his driver's test last June.

There was a lot of traffic in Tokyo.

"Turn here," Ren languidly gestured at a highway exit, the traffic was gone.

Before Akechi knew it they were flying down the highway with a view of the coast. 

It was hard for Akechi to take his eyes off of the road, but he glanced at Ren for just a moment, expecting him to have fear on his face at his driving— but instead Ren looked completely relaxed and was smiling with the wind in his face. The wind tugged on his curls as they drove, and the shimmering reflection on the water reflected in his glasses.

Eyes back on the road.

The flutter in Akechi’s chest was overwhelming, he slowly breathed through his lips to try to steady himself. Chiba was not a far drive away, he just had to hang in there.

Akechi heard Ren’s camera sound again.

“Did you take another picture of me?” Akechi demanded, feeling like Ren was taking a picture to make fun of his tense driving. Akechi glanced over at Ren again to find Ren looking at his phone with a kind, affectionate expression.

“Did you say something, Akechi-kun?”

“Uh...why did you snap a photo of me?”

“Proof that you took a vacation,” he replied turning away from Akechi and taking a selfie with both of them in it, with the shimmering ocean in the background. “The next time you’re feeling burnt out you can look back and remember that one day I convinced you to rent a car and drive me to Chiba.”

“Send me that.”

“Um-hm!” The phone sitting in his pocket buzzed. “Make a goofy face, Goro!”

“I’m driving!”

Ren did his best pissed off Akechi impression when he said that and snapped another selfie and laughed, feeling carefree. Akechi felt like his heart was going to jump out of his chest.

“Send me all of them.”

“Okay~”

A steady buzzing in his pocket.

**~~~~~**

“First things first," Ren exclaimed, stepping out of the car. They drove to a shrine surrounded by a nature park. It was usually a wonderful place to view flowers, but since it was winter the rhododendron plants were green, and lightly powdered with snow. There was a sound of a creek nearby, but it wasn't in sight.

"Actually Amamiya, I need a break. You can go on ahead."

"Oh...is everything alright?"

"Yeah, I just need ten minutes or so."

Ren leaned against the car looking concerned for a moment, then nodded and took off toward the shrine alone, taking more pictures.

Akechi hated these feelings. He'd tried to murder Amamiya twice in the last month, three times in two, counting that sparring match in mementos when he only used Robin Hood. He would have loved to leave him on the Mementos floor that day. 

And yet here they were in Chiba on a day trip that felt so damn much like a date.

 _You need a vacation,_ he said. _Look at these pictures when you're feeling burnt out_ , he said.

He remembered how confident he felt when he shot Ren point blank in the interrogation room. Astonished fear on his face. The blood splat on the table when he fell. The thrill of knowing he'd won.

The misery of knowing he'd won.

The emotional fog he'd navigated from there on after.

The sheer and utter humiliation of realizing he'd been duped, and booking it back to Shido's palace to confront them again. _Him_ again.

And how Amamiya had _known_ about his intentions from the get go, how all of the Phantom thieves did. How they all acted like he was a part of their team, when they were really ten steps ahead of him, laughing at him the entire time. How, together, their plan to trick the double agent was flawless and couldn't be detected by even a career detective such as himself.

Was Ren in the room when he'd shot his cognitive double? Sitting safely meters away while he monologued and said his final words? God _damnit_.

Hesitantly, slowly, Akechi pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at the pictures Ren had sent him. 

Ren...was gorgeous. And he himself looked flustered and anxious, driving for the first time since June, and yet still looking happier than he'd been in years.

The cognitive version of himself in Shido's mind said it all.

He was _incredibly_ easy to manipulate. He had poor self esteem. He was gifted the power to kill unseen. All Shido had to do was give him a compliment and he ran around risking his life, murdering all who opposed him. And Shido had planned to kill him as soon as he got the chance. How the hell did he not see that? It was so obvious. Or... did he know all along? Maybe deep down he knew Shido would off him as soon as it suited him. Did he aid Shido because he was afraid, and in too deep? Walking the tightrope between a doomed aid who knew too much and a doomed aid who knew it was death to defy him. He was damned if he did, and damned if he didn't.

Everything around him, everyone was laughing at him. And he was being tugged around because he was lonely enough to throw himself at the feet of whoever validated him.

And then there was Ren, the attic trash with the resilience of a cockroach, the self preservation of a toddler, and the power of a god.

That bastard was his closest friend.

In these pictures Ren looked comfortable and happy next to him. He himself had...a sincere smile. Not a snarky one. Not a...fake smile. He was enjoying himself.

"I need...to be needed," Akechi mumbled to himself, ears then eyes feeling hot. He felt weak. Bonds, friends, all bullshit…

Or was it? The Phantom Thieves keep telling him they had to team up to defeat him. Would being vulnerable and sincere enough to make friends make him more powerful? Could the duality of bonds, both liability and strength, just multiply?

Was Ren the strongest, yet the most vulnerable?

Just how vulnerable was he?

It was so much easier to forget all that, right? No bonds, no vulnerability.

Or many bonds, and being more vulnerable than anyone?

The velvet room, life experience, the Phantom Thieves— all signs pointed to bonds being the key to ultimate power. The Phantom Thieves saved him and Ren from Death. They were not asked to. He’d have died if left to his own devices. 

“He says he loves me,” Akechi sighed, looking at the pictures. It looked like it. He’d said it in Mementos. He wasn’t sure of context, though, or if it was just a seed in Ren’s subconscious that he wasn’t even aware of. Maybe Ren loved everybody?

Shit. Why did the idea of Ren loving everyone equally make him—furious?

Akechi willed his tears down. He could not meet Ren with red eyes, he refused.

What was he even thinking? He meant _something_ to Ren, right? They were alone in Chiba. They had these pictures. Ren loved him in _some_ capacity, be it in his subconscious. “Akechi, do you want him dead or…” Was there even an alternative? Was killing Ren not his fate?

He stepped out of the car, found Ren on a bench on his phone. He seemed to be cropping pictures that he’d taken to get them ready to post online. 

“Hah...I thought you were going to leave me here.”

“It crossed my mind.” Akechi sat next to him.

“Jeez Akechi. You look more tired now than you did this morning.”

“I have a lot on my mind.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“I suppose. Let’s start with...why won’t you _die_. Just, as a concept.”

“Not one for small talk, hm?” Ren sighed with a weak smile. “I can’t die yet. I have unfinished business.”

“And, Amamiya. Also help me with why you...give a damn. About me, that is. I really can’t comprehend it. I have to just write you off as a child without a sense of self preservation.”

“Harsh…”

"Is it? I tried to murder you last week. Anyone in their right mind would want nothing to do with me.” Ren drummed his fingers on his knee, letting Akechi finish. “So...do you just have a _death wish_ , or…”

“Akechi, do I bother you that much?” Ren huffed. “Akechi...no I…” He looked flustered. “Definitely want to live. There’s a lot that I...feel...but it’s hard to explain." He looked down to his lap. "Akechi, if you want to go...go. I won't bother you again. If you drive away I will leave you be. That or just message you for missions, but not for recreation. Would that be better?"

"No."

"When it comes to me, what do _you want_?"

Akechi froze, different sides of him wanted different things. He had no definitive 'that's what I want' answer, and he was taking it out on Amamiya. Akechi was desperate for Ren to say something stupid to make it easier to write him off— that or for the younger man to make an executive decision about their dynamic, and make it easy to fall in line.

"I want to defeat you."

"But you _did_. Easily. Last week. Now what?"

Akechi didn’t really have an answer. After a while, he added

“I don’t understand why you’re so interested in being around me. After what I did. You’re always trying to inch into my life—”

“I’ll let you finish,” Ren interjected, holding up his index finger to let Goro know he had something to say. This derailed Goro’s already weak train of thought. After Akechi’s silence, Ren added

“You try to inch into mine, too.”

“Absurd, I—” Ren got on his phone, and within 3 seconds had a text that Akechi’d sent him. “I’m alone right now. Let’s play pool, I want to show you my favorite jazz club, they’re having live entertainment tonight,” He continued to read down the texts. Akechi couldn’t do much more than sit there and allow Ren to throw his words in his face. “And finally...unannounced you show up to Leblanc with a Wii and a...game I thought you’d like. You ask me for help. You wished…” He turned off his phone. “For us to have a showtime together.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have a star that grants wishes...but like. Only wishes of battle coordination. You wished for a showtime with me. I know you did.”

“Well—” Akechi sat up straight, overwhelmed. He felt the need to deflect what Ren was saying.

“And I was so happy. I _love_ our showtime.” Nervously, slowly, Ren exhaled as he reached into Goro’s lap, taking his ungloved hand. “I was so happy when you wanted one with me. We _care_ about each other, Goro.” Akechi felt like ice. Cold, numb, he couldn’t think, he couldn’t talk. “You would only buy a Wii and bring it over if somewhere inside of you you wanted me to be happy. You specifically wanted to bring me happiness.”

Akechi was still.

“And...I _know_ I want _you_ to be happy.”

Akechi gulped. He was nauseous. Very nauseous. He quickly covered his mouth with his left hand.

“Are you...gonna vomit?” Ren took his hand back quickly, and scooted away to the opposite end of the bench.

Akechi turned away from Ren and slung his arm over the side of the bench to lean over. He gacked. And there was no pride left in his body. Ren frowned, looking around embarrassed. 

“Uhm...I’m gonna find you something to drink, Akechi.” 

“...Thank you.” Ren got up and jogged away.

_And alas. This is how it ends. Me, slung over a shrine park bench, looking down at my own vomit. Throw up on my face, no napkin. Utterly defeated in front of the leader of the Phantom Thieves_ , he thought dismally to himself. 

The park was mostly empty, but a few passerby quickly ran past. He was turned away from the walkway. He swore he heard someone call him a drunkard. 

“Akechi—” several minutes later Ren rubbed his back. Again, Akechi didn’t move. “I brought you a soda…” Ren scooted closer and reached over him to hand him a drink and disposable napkin. Akechi took it, blushing, not having expected Ren to go so far as to reach over him. He felt the heat on his back come then go in exchange for the napkin and bottle. 

He wiped his face, he uncapped the soda, swished it around his mouth, swallowed more hoping the carbonation would help his stomach. It helped. 

“I can never face you again,” Akechi mumbled glumly, still slung over the bench and facing away from Ren. 

“Life will be boring without you,” Ren mused. But he was still there. “Goro, sit up, please.”

Goro did, just staring ahead, holding his soda in his hands.

“So...are you ready for your next training task? It’s a small task. You don’t even have to get up.”

“...I’ll try.”

“Say…’we care about each other’. Just say that.” Akechi sucked in his lips, closed his eyes. He got as zen as he could will himself.

“We care... about each other.”

For a moment, everything froze. The bubbles in his soda ceased mid rise. The area went dead silent. No creek, no people, only the beating of his own heart in his ears, his breathing.

**I am thou, thou art I.**

**Thou hath acquired a new bond.**

He felt the chains fall off of his compendium.

He felt the hot tears fall down his cheeks. He closed his eyes, breathing the crisp air. One single, sincere bond. 

“I feel like you need a vacation from your vacation,” Ren chuckled. “I know that look. Did something happen?”

“I’m back in compliance,” he whispered, wiping his face.

“Hah! I’m your bond! Hehe,” he nudged Akechi, grinning. “Am I an arcana?”

“Sun,” he managed to say.

“Oh. You’re my Justice Arcana.”

“That,” Akechi smiled. “Doesn’t make any sense.”

“I disagree. You follow your own Justice. Like, fuck the government and the police and what they think is right and wrong, if we put that on the shelf for just a moment. You know what you want, and you’ve been fighting for it for years, right? Everything you’ve done has been to get you closer to righting a wrong, right?”

Shido. 

All of this. Everything he did was to bring Shido to his knees. To desecrate him completely. He’d kill, die if it meant Shido would feel any sort of regret for the state he left his family in. For what he did to his mom. He’d killed, acted, bit his tongue, lied to make the man who was untouchable by law see consequences. 

“Okay, I see what you’re saying.”

“Let’s go?” Ren asked standing up. “Let’s quickly loop this park then...go to an _on-sen_?”

“Okay. I wouldn’t mind cleaning up.” He slowly stood. “Amamiya...I’m sorry about today.”

“You’re doing your best,” Ren complimented. “And don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.”

“I don’t know why you…” He paused, correcting his thoughts. “Because we care about eachother.” He nodded, following his friend, trying to believe it. Trying desperately to believe it and be okay with it. Trying to be okay with being cared about, and caring about Amamiya.

“Hey Akechi look at these _omamori_!” Ren exclaimed, showing Akechi one. “Should we get a pair?”

“Sure, let’s.” **_I care about you._ **

“I can’t wait for it to snow, Akechi. It’s gonna be so beautiful.”

**_You care about me._ **

“Gotta use the restroom, I’ll be right back okay?” **_I care about you._ **

Ren sent a picture to Akechi’s phone, a well lit, gorgeous picture of a fern. **_You care about me._ **

“Let’s get going to the _on-sen_. Are you good to drive, Akechi?”

**_We care about each other_**.

“I can drive.” They both got in the car. “Still can’t believe you’re willing to be seen with me in public after I threw up.” Key in the ignition. 

“No idea what you’re talking about,” Ren laughed. 

Akechi bit his lip, smiling, and they drove off.

**~~~~~**

Akechi was the first one in the water. His prewash was thorough but quick, he was desperate to get clean. He was spiritually exhausted. He tried to let go of his thoughts, tried to breathe in the minerals' air. He heard Ren climb into the pool next to him. 

They’d bathed together before. He just had to keep his cool. 

Under the water he felt Ren’s fingers trace his, and curl under his palm. At this Akechi sat up to look at him. Ren was blushing, he’d never seen this before. 

“Sorry,” Ren whispered. Akechi felt Ren’s hand leave. 

Again, Akechi gulped. Psychotic Joker told him he loved him, but...was that love romantic? 

_Holy shit_. Akechi’s heart started to race.

What to say.

What should he say?

He could feel himself blushing.

It was awkward to talk too much in the onsen. But he had to say something, right?

Ren was powerful.

He was gorgeous.

He was dependable, strong, brilliant, charming.

And they cared about each other.

They wanted each other to be happy.

They listened to the jets bubble around them, the soft sighs of the other men in the pool.

Akechi thought for a moment about Ren... being partners with him. He’d once offered Ren a detective apprenticeship.

He knew he wanted Ren...by him, partnered with him in some kind of way. 

He also knew Ren was really popular. He was positive girls and probably even some guys vied for Ren’s romantic attention. Did he...take Ren’s heart? Without trying?

If he didn’t reply aptly, would Ren date somebody else?

“You’re fine,” Akechi whispered back, closing his eyes again to try to relax. Ren did the same.

They both got out, dried off, went to the locker rooms to get in their robes.

Ren sighed, pushing his glasses back on, drying his hair, started digging through his backpack for his spare clothes. Akechi couldn’t help but sneak a few glances, he looked so good in those robes.

Did he feel the same way Ren did?

Yes, probably. He remembered the panic that seized him when he thought Ren was going to leave the day before. He remembered the acute feeling of pride when Ren took his hand in the bath.

But he needed more time. He couldn’t just say something like that now. Not after his attempted murder, not after he threw up. 

“I appreciate you,” Akechi said matter-of-factly, combing his hair with a fine tooth he brought from home. “Getting me out of the house and challenging me. I knew I could count on you to help me.”

Ren, for just a moment, watched the comb's teeth glide through Akechi's hair. He was beautiful. It almost seemed like Akechi was posing for him. Ren smiled, then turned away to get dressed.

Feeling refreshed, they returned to the car.

“Well, that was relaxing. Should we head home, or—”

“Hold on.” Ren was already on his phone. “There are sushi rolling master classes just up the street.”

“...”

“ _Please_ can we go? I _know_ you like sushi.”

A cooking class with his crush, hm?

Akechi nodded, and Ren led him a few blocks away to this super conveniently timed class.

When they sat down and paid for the class, they had to go so far as to do the prep work. They even had to fill their rice cookers. They had to gut fish. Akechi of course took his gloves off, Ren enjoyed the sight of Akechi’s hands diligently working to press the rice to the seaweed, cutting vegetables.

Ren looked natural in his apron, and had a precision in cooking that Akechi definitely admired.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Goro mumbled under his breath several times. Ren simply smiled doing his best to tightly roll his vegetables as the instructor taught. 

“Moment of truth,” Ren noted, cutting his sushi into cross sections. Goro worked on _nigiri_ , molding rice balls and setting proteins on them. He smiled when he molded an egg nigiri, he’d cooked the egg himself as per the instructor’s teachings.

Ren was over the moon. He loved doing touristy things, especially since he was new to Tokyo.

Akechi couldn’t cook, so this information was useful for later, especially since he was living on his own. He took note of the ingredients needed to replicate this at his home.

Both of their dishes looked relatively good. They ate together, both of them starving.

“You didn’t eat the food I bought this morning, hmm?” Akechi asked, reaching over the table for some of Ren’s rolled sushi. “The croquettes?”

“No,” he replied, reaching over the table for some of Goro’s _nigiri_.

“Why? I bought them for you. It’s not like they were poisoned or anything.”

“My 3DS wasn’t poisoned either,” Ren huffed.

“Ooooh, haha. I didn’t realize you were that petty, Amamiya. So we’re just not accepting gifts from each other?”

“Well we are _now_ ,” Ren replied, making a point to reach over for another piece of _nigiri_. “I just want to play some games with you.”

“Heh, fine. I’ll try to pencil you into my schedule for some puzzle games…”

“Excuse me.” A shy waitress bowed deeply to Akechi. “It would mean so much to us if you took a picture with our staff. We can give you a discount for the interruption? We try to commemorate celebrities that patronize our business.”

“Oh, sure I’d love to. Please excuse me, Amamiya.” He tapped his face with a napkin and stood. “You can bring your companion if you like,” the waitress motioned to Ren, who looked a little startled. 

“Oh, uh. I’m not a celebrity,” Ren said quickly.

“You’re not?” maybe she was thrown off by his **debonair** good looks. “It doesn’t matter. We would welcome your participation if you’re willing.”

“Let’s go,” Akechi insisted. 

They took a picture with the staff, they got their discount. They asked for online tags, and Ren gave them a burner account with one of his fake names.

“Oh my, six followers?” The waitress asked, smiling at Ren, absolutely not believing that someone as gorgeous as him had six followers on instagram, especially if they were out with Akechi. She immediately knew she’d been given a burner account. “I’ll follow you too, bring it up to seven. Click!”

“I’ve been blessed,” Ren smiled wide, placing his hand on his heart.

“It was a pleasure meeting you both, Akechi and,” she looked at the burner instagram account “Mao Tomokawa.”

“Should we continue our meal, Mao-kun?” Akechi asked, trying not to laugh too hard.

“Before you go. We’re aware of your food blog, we’ll pay you to write your honest review of our establishment.”

“Oh, but of course. I’ll give you a discounted price for your generous hospitality, and taking us in without an appointment.” Him and her exchanged _meishi_.

Akechi and Mao Tomokawa finished their meal.

“That was quick thinking,” Akechi noted on their way back to the car. “False identities, burner accounts. I’m jealous your profile is low enough to pull that off.”

Ren reached into his wallet and showed Akechi a forged state ID with Mao Tomokawa on it. 

“No snitching,” Ren insisted. “I’m on parole, I need to make sure my profile is as low as possible.”

“I’m surprised you trust me enough to show me that.”

“Well we have mutually damning dirt on each other at this point, so. If we go down we go down together.”

Akechi somehow felt so...happy. This time he got to watch Ren against the shimmering ocean behind him, his curls being pulled by the wind. He was less anxious driving, and Ren looked so relaxed. He himself felt relaxed.

After a while Ren met his eyes blushing a little.

“You’re looking at me,” he noted. Akechi only smiled in return. Yeah he was. 

**~~~~~**

Akechi was curled in his bed with his 3DS, playing with Ren on the other side of Tokyo. His phone lit and buzzed, Ren told him he was going to go to sleep for now. ' _Good night, Goro_.'

He messaged Ren a simple ‘ _night_.’

He closed his 3DS. The light on his phone timed out. His house was still and dark once again.

“Ren…” He moaned. He was becoming very fond of the boy. He’d made an absolute fool of himself today, and Ren stayed. More than half of him wished Ren would make a colossal social blunder so he could feel better. 

He’d been getting shit sleep since fighting the Phantom Thieves a few weeks back in Shido’s palace. Echoes of his past were starting to bubble up. The more baggage he worked though, the more baggage presented itself. He’d wake multiple times through the night from night terrors if he didn’t drug himself to sleep.

He popped a melatonin gummy in his mouth wondering what bullshit waited for him in his subconscious today. The twins? The blank, haunted faces of the people he murdered? Ren and the Phantom Thieves leaving him again? He closed his eyes, bracing himself.

“Hello pigeon,” Wakaba cooed.

**_Oh, this again._ **


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goro's past is unveiled, and during the Phantom Thieves' fight with Shido, secrets about Akechi's past are shared with the phantom thieves before he's ready. Akechi grapples with ideas of redemption and friendship, and deals with the weight of the Phantom thieves not only knowing his darkest secrets, but also with what Shido knew about him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a part 2 of 3.
> 
> (Quote on anger is a tweet from @apocalynds, Lyndsay Gallant  
> https://twitter.com/apocalynds/status/1269711325749563399?s=19 )

Wakaba Isshiki pulled him close, giving him a prolonged hug. 

The hug felt so good. She was all he had. She was the only person who cared about him. He almost teared up at her embrace. It was nice to feel wanted. He needed to feel needed. “Hey, hey, no tears. This is a _happy day_. I heard you did well on your extermination trials. The higher-ups are so impressed, they bought you sushi.”

The children got sushi when they excelled, furthered the research.

Goro shook, crying. He finally did well enough. Other orphans didn’t have problems like he did. He overexerted himself every single day to get the results like the other children, and he finally did it. Day after day he watched others be praised and congratulated while he ate less desirable food. He finally earned the reward.

“Pigeon, you did so good for me.” Wakaba placed the sushi plate down and hugged Goro again. 

“I’m trying,” he choked out.

“I _know_ , Pigeon. I’m so proud of you.” She wiped his tears. “Eat up. Things are only going to get more difficult from here. We need you at full strength. You and Robin Hood.”

Akechi nodded, sitting down to eat. 

**_Positive reinforcement for the behaviors you want to maintain._ **

Wakaba walked away to type at her laptop at the other end of the clinic room, when another scientist barged in making a thud that made both her and Goro cringe.

“I told you I have sensitive ears, Shibusawa san. Don’t make me tell you again.”

“I’m sorry Isshiki San. It’s just the experiment worked! I wanted to tell you myself.”

“ ** _Osagiri_ ** _around the specimens_." She chided the younger man. "So...do you mean…” Wakaba took his clipboard to look through the papers.

Akechi looked up from his meal to see a doctor rush a body bag on a gurney past the open door. His stomach flipped. 

**_The clinic rooms had one way mirrors. It was chance that I saw that body bag…_ **

“This is incredible,” Wakaba enthused, looking through the documents. 

“When the palace fell, they were trapped. He is expected to revive any second. Boom, no trace.”

Wakaba shoved the clipboard back into Shibusawa’s chest so hard that he fell backwards out of the clinic room.

“Even _interns_ should know you don’t talk results in front of specimens. You’re terminated, Shibusawa.”

“Wait—” 

She shut the door on him.

“I’m sorry about that,” she sighed, grabbing the remote and flipping on the TV.

Phoenix Ranger Featherman.

**_Brainwashing propaganda._ **

“Introducing, Pigeon, the grey featherman ranger!”

“We wrote the writers,” Wakaba noted. “That’s you, pigeon.” Goro was so excited he nearly forgot about the body bag.

The actor dazzled, tried to contact the original six. His origin story was different, he was created. He was training. He blasted through obstacles.

Akechi was mesmerized with the grey Featherman, but also. The body bag. He did his best to listen to Wakaba even though the TV was blasting in his ears.

“———control group—replicable——” he heard her mumble while scribbling in her notes.

He was young and distracted, but he knew what a control group was. They were going to try to replicate the experiment, whatever it was. Children...trapped. A man dead. 

Children trapped, a man dead, he repeated in his mind, trying to not let the flashy TV screen let him forget.

**_Children trapped, a man dead._ **

“How far will Pigeon go?” Isshiki asked, as the credits rolled. “It’s up to you.”

Akechi fell back into reality.

“I’m going to win. I’ll be more powerful than the Phoenix Ranger Feathermen.”

**_Why do I have to watch this again..._ **

“That’s my pigeon. I’m so proud. We begin in an hour.” Isshiki left the clinic room.

Akechi watched his past self sit in front of a metal filing cabinet secured with a combination lock. He knew where the cameras were. He just had to look like he was watching TV. Like everyone else getting pumped up with with the Featherman Mythos at the clinic.

**_Using a popular children’s show to inspire your lab rats to yield better results. Despicable._ **

He watched himself sneak glances at the lock, but mostly he memorized how it felt. He tried different combinations, the bottom drawer is where they kept the phones. They all had **N.K.Nav** , an app that helped you get into the metaverse. 

Today he was feeling especially desperate. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want to get trapped and vanish like ‘boom.’ He just needed a phone. He could figure things out from there, he just needed a phone.

33412, pull. Locked.

33413, pull. Locked. 

33414, pull. Locked. 

33415, pull. Locked. 

Digit by digit.

Digit by digit. 

Steadily. He had to hold out hope.

“Time for session,” Isshiki came back, looking exasperated. Goro took his hand back, pretending nothing happened. He’d been trying to get his hands on a phone for...far too long.

“I’m ready. Let’s train.”

“Oh, such initiative! I’ll be sure to note that for the show’s writers.”

“I’m honored, mom—I—I mean. I’m sorry.” The color left his face at the blunder.

Wakaba's eyes widened and she paused, she looked down with realization... then continued. “This way, you know the routine.”

Once Goro was out of the room, Wakaba backtracked and put in the combination to the filing cabinet, taking out a smartphone.

Goro ran up on her.

“A-again I’m so sorry I called you that!”

“Ack!” she dropped the phone in her hand at this surprise, it clattered on the ground.

“Ugh, back away!” she demanded, trying to shield the combination with her sleeve, but Goro had already memorized it.

**76399**.

“I’m so sorry Osagiri san.” What she was called by the kids.

“Just back away.” When he did, she cursed, relocking the drawer. “That’s a fine stunt you pulled there, Goro.” They were called by their real names when they were in trouble.

“St-stunt? I just wanted to apologize…”

“Get to the jumpoff point.”

“Yes ma’am, right away.”

They handed him a phone. It was a special phone that could do outgoing and incoming calls to other phones in the network, even in the metaverse.

It also logged all activities on it. 

**_For science._ **

He wondered if Wakaba Isshiki had a palace.

It would be too dangerous to look it up on the phone.

But what was he going to do? If he didn’t act soon, he’d die. He knew it.

But he knew the combination!

But _she knew_ he knew the combination.

Walking around in the metaverse like he was right now, risking his life facing these...shadows, they called them. He felt safer in the metaverse than at the clinic.

Small demons ran at him for the warm up, he sliced through them with his saber.

“Good!” Isshiki’s voice sounded on his phone, which basically functioned like a walkie-talkie. “We won’t bother you with pipsqueaks anymore, further ahead there are higher level shadows.”

“Copy.”

He sliced through them.

“Stop using your weapon, you’re relying on it. Use your _persona_. You need practice.”

“Copy. Robin Hood.” His persona emerged, floated next to him when he walked through the training facility. He started to blast monsters with Robin Hood, but he grew tired quickly.

“Keep it up, pigeon.”

“I’m trying.”

“High level shadow to the right.” He turned, and was immediately smashed in the face with _megaton hammer_ , and he fell. The shadow got in another attack while he was down. 

“You got this! —- ~~put it over there, switch out its contents~~.”

Akechi didn’t have any healing skills.

“What was that?”

“I said get up, Akechi. You got this.”

**_She switched out the filing cabinet._ **

Akechi fought until he couldn’t anymore.

“Ending task now,” Wakaba alerted, typing.

He was back at the lobby, a place in the metaverse right before the jump off point but there was no chance of danger there.

A boy Akechi knew as Black Condor met him at the entrance. He was his senior, an actual Feather Ranger Rank.

“Hey Condor.”

“Hey Pigeon. Saw you on TV today! Persona,” Akechi’s wounds healed for the most part, and they warped through the jump-off point together.

“See ya.” Black Condor bolted off. That was a shorter than usual interaction.

Akechi couldn’t help but look— the filing cabinet was gone. He could feel the helplessness seep in.

“Less than stellar results today,” Wakaba chided.

“I’m sorry, Osagiri san.”

A physical exam. They gave him a bandage for his forehead, and an ice pack for the swelling.

He was forced to take some medicine he didn't know the components of.

“There’s always tomorrow. I think I have a mission coming up for you. You’ll be joining the Feathermen rank soon.”

His heart sank, but he acted excited.

“Yes! I’ll do my best from here on out!”

The duality in his heart was screaming. He was tired of acting. He was terrified for his life.

In the evening he returned to the barracks. He shared a room with Black Condor and a few other kids.

He crawled into his bed, and Condor was smiling at him from his top bunk.

“Um...what is it?”

“LIGHTS OUT!” The lights clipped off for everyone simultaneously.

Everything was dark except for a light that shone under Condor’s face, lighting his features gently in the dark.

“No way…” Goro slid out of his bed.

“Way. Thanks to whatever you pulled, an intern was in the hall with a bunch of phones and paperwork. He didn’t even know I snatched it.”

“Was it Shibusawa?”

“I think it was. He looked pissed.”

Akechi looked dubious.

“What’s on your mind. I thought you’d be happy.”

“It could be a bait phone. To see if we’re loyal.”

“Well, we’re not. Pigeon, _two_ of my teammates went missing today.” Akechi felt cold. “Two. Yet the scientists were throwing a _party_. I don’t give a flying fuck if this is a bait phone. This is the only shot I have.” Condor clutched the phone. “I want you to come. And you, Gannet.”

Gannet sat up tearing. 

“I’m scared,” she whispered. “I can’t even summon my persona yet.” She was covered in gauze and bandages, and seemed dazed from the amount of medication she was on.

“We’ll protect you,” Akechi promised.

“Right,” Condor nodded.

“We have nowhere to go,” her voice trembled. That was true. They were all orphans who’d been bounced through the system enough to the point where if they disappeared, no one would notice. They already didn’t have contact with the outside world.

“Don’t think about that right now,” Condor insisted. “We’ll have each other.”

Gannet wobbled over, took Akechi’s hand. Condor hopped off of his bunk, took Gannet’s hand.

“Whatever is on the other side of this, it was a pleasure.”

“I want to do it.” Akechi grabbed the phone.

“Jeez, fine. But you have to look out for us.”

“Okay.” 

Akechi tapped the app, the phone emitted a metaverse field and the three started to fall. They fell, and fell, it felt like they were falling into the depths hell. Soon they were freefalling in pitch blackness, wind whipped past them, murmurs of demons started to sound. They heard the murmurs of shadows call out to them, Gannet was torn out of Akechi's hand.

Gannet shrieked, and her voice stopped abruptly.

“Gannet!” Condor’s voice. “Pigeon! Where are you?!”

“I—I can’t see!”

“Pigeon!” His voice was further away.

Akechi’s fall started to spiral out of control, he didn’t know which way was up or down, his stomach felt toppled, his hair was in his face.

This was all...Shido’s fault.

This was Wakaba’s fault.

He heard Condor screaming. 

He needed to bring Shido to justice.

He needed to save his peers.

This was all because of those _rotten adults._

“No! I can’t lose. I won’t DIIIE!”

He crash landed on something fleshy. His eyes opened, the only thing he could see was what looked like a vengeful god looking down at him, its gold eyes were the only light. He could make the outline of horns, a halo, wings, it illuminated the spindly fingers around him. He was sitting in this god’s hand.

He backed up, terrified, thinking it was a demon. A mountain sized demon he had no hope of defeating. 

But he wasn’t going to give up without a fight.

“Persona—” Robin Hood looked like an ant compared to this god, he hurled a force attack, it pattered pathetically off of the dark figure.

“I like you.”

Its voice boomed through Akechi’s chest knocking the wind out of him, he clutched his chest finding it hard to breathe.

His blood started to rush, he gripped his head screaming. It couldn’t end here.

**You took a leap of faith.**

**Adults pushed you to the edge, and you jumped, because you wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. You want to forge your own path, trickster?**

**You want to exact revenge?**

**You want to save yourself?**

**You’re going to need more power, and you are worthy of forging your own path, free from the chains of slavery. I’ll get you there, with the power to bring society to its knees.**

**Sign this contract in blood.**

**I am thou,**

**Thou art I.**

**It’s time to get back at the society that cast you out.**

**Make your mark in this heartless world, carve your name in its flesh!**

“I hear you, Loki.”

A twisted black figure seeded inside of his heart, alongside Robin Hood.

Loki offered Akechi a wide, twisted smile.

“It’s time to take revenge.” Akechi was no longer falling, he levitated, hovered, then landed on his feet in a tunnel of darkness.

Loki motioned to the darkness, figures started to appear. 

People he knew.

It was a long dark hallway, with ghostly, colorless figures. Loki walked with him like a museum curator, hands behind his back.

He saw all of the scientists. He saw some of the police officers. He saw Naoto Shirogane, drinking coffee at the police station. He saw Shibusawa looking through a fridge.

“Can they see me?” Goro waved at the wavering holograms.

“You are unseen. Choose. Who would you like to bring to ruin?”

He saw Wakaba walking down the street.

“Her.”

Loki levitated ominously, and one attack option appeared before Akechi.

Both him and Loki raised their hands at the same time.

“ _Call of Chaos_.”

Wakaba’s face turned to Goro. Her hologram looked him in the eyes before her eyes rolled back.

“Part two,” Loki noted. "Choose the time she meets her demise. Now, an hour, a few days, a few weeks.

“Now!”

He watched wakaba jump into traffic.

“Mom?!” Screaming, tires screeching, Goro turned away and the image dissipated.

“She is done.”

“Sh...show me Masayoshi Shido.”

“He is inaccessible.”

“ _What_?”

Loki raised his hand, a hologram of Shido appeared. He was sleeping with nearly four women in his bed.

“ _Call of Chaos_. Now.”

Loki did, nothing happened.

“Call! Call of Chaos! Call of—” He started to tear up. “Tell me why.”

“He is protected.”

“Explain it to me! Explain the _science_ to me!”

“Some are untouchable. Wakaba made it so.”

“No!” he shouted. “But not herself?”

“Not herself.”

“How do I leave this place.” Loki pointed to the phone in Akechi’s left hand. He’d had a death grip on it this whole time. Another app popped up beside the N.K.Nav app.

It had the eyes of that...god whose hand he fell into.

“The wiring has changed. It is a safe phone for you to use. Its network connection to Kirijo group has forever been severed.

**_The Kirijo Group._ **

“Are you...going to stay with me, Loki?”

“I’ll always be with you.”

When Goro emerged back to reality, he had no idea where he was. He hadn’t seen the sky in far too long. Months? He barely knew what year it was, how old he was.

He looked at his phone.

It had the time, it had the date. It had a few common system apps.

_He had a phone._

_And he had this_ **_power_**.

  
  


“C...condor?” he called shakily. He wasn’t hopeful that he’d find him. “Gannet?” His voice started to break. He started walking. He stuck out, people in civilian clothing eyed him. He wore a gray polyester jumpsuit, he looked exactly like what he was, a runaway slave. He was hungry, tired. “C-condor? CONDOR!” he shouted, and his voice echoed. 

He heard dog barking.

He knew those dogs. Fuck. He started to run. He didn’t survive a fall into hell to be stopped by hounds. The dog barking drew nearer, nearer, he ran into a thicket of trees, grabbed a stick. It was something.

And he found Condor.

And he found Gannet.

Condor looked like he was in a coma.

Gannet was...torn apart.

“Black Condor!” Goro whispered, falling to his knees. Though Condor was breathing and unharmed, though his eyes were open, he did not budge. His eyes didn’t even turn toward him. Was this... "Apathy Syndrome?" he whispered shakilly. He'd heard of it, it happened to the kids at the clinic sometimes, but usually to the weaker ones. How would this happen to—

He heard the dogs start howling, louder yet. He pulled out his phone, hit the new app.

He reentered the dark corridor of holograms, just as the dogs caught sight of him.

They’d found his friends. They howled to alert the scientists.

He wasn’t able to keep his promise. The howling dissolved as the blackness came.

He ran the way he came down the hall until he found Naoto Shirogane’s apparition.

He turned off the app again, and clattered on the police station floor.

Naoto jumped out of their desk, nearly having a heart attack.

“Who are you? How did you get in—” Naoto was disarmed at the sight of the crying, familiar boy. “Goro Akechi?”

Akechi was crying, but he nodded. Shirogane took off their coat and placed it over Goro’s shoulders in an attempt to comfort him.

“What happened?”

In his distress, Akechi tackled Naoto with a hug. He needed to feel safe, he needed comfort.

“I can’t go back. You gotta hide me,” he cried into Naoto’s chest. “Please don’t—" he sniffed “—tell anyone I’m here. I don’t have anywhere to go. Please help me, I can’t go back!”

“Go back?”

“Hide me from the Kirijo Group. _Please_ —”

“Kirijo…” At this, Naoto wrapped their arms around Akechi. “They killed my friends. They’re gonna kill me—” 

“Sh, shh…” Naoto held him tight. “You won’t _ever_ have to go back there. You have my word.” They pushed him back to look at his face.

“But you have to tell me, _where is_ the Kirijo group?”

“I don’t know!” Akechi replied honestly. “Underground I think...”

“Did you just come from there?” Akechi nodded. Naoto sighed, looking down, seemingly calculating things at light speed.

“The doors are locked, how did you get into the police station?”

“...”

“Do you have powers, Goro? Have you heard of Persona?”

Goro looked at them feeling betrayed, he scooted away.

“Stay back…”

“I’ll stay back. But please don’t be afraid. I have a persona. I might be just the person to help you escape the Kirijo Group.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“You don’t have to.” They got up and sat back at their desk. “But I’m familiar with The Kirijo Group. I know of their...trafficking. I’ve heard of their methods. I am so _sorry_ this happened to you, Goro Akechi. Do you need anything, food, water?”

“I’m tired…”

“I can help with that. I’ll arrange for you to get a motel room near mine. Would you be okay with that?”

“Thank you, detective.”

“I’ll pick you up some civilian clothes, too.”

Goro nodded, pulling Naoto’s coat closed across his chest.

**_And this should be about when…_ **

Naoto and Akechi returned from the metaverse, a few weeks later. The older persona-user's eyes were downcast, they couldn’t make eye contact.

“I had no idea...you were a monster.”

“What?”

“Goodbye, Goro.”

“Shirogane San, please!”

“You’re on your own from now on.”

In his desperation, Akechi hugged Shirogane, who swatted him off like a mosquito.

“I won't work with you anymore. What a _terrible power_. Have you used that attack on **people** , Akechi?”

"N-no!" Goro begged. Shaking their head they turned and left.

**Dec 5th**

Akechi woke from his sleep, crying, pillow wet.

“Fuck, this dream again,” he complained, rubbing his eyes and reaching for his phone.

It was 4 AM.

“These dreams are going to kill me,” Akechi lamented, wide awake.

Wakaba Isshiki.

Futaba Sakura.

Naoto Shirogane.

Gannet.

Condor.

_You killed me, Pigeon_.

“I’m _Crow—_ ” he growled, rubbing his eyes. “Fuck, I’m talking to them now. Fuck.”

He was never able to find the Kirijo group. He had searched for years. Cycling around, keeping an eye out, listening to others’ conversations for any mention. He swore if he ever did ever find it he’d burn it to the ground.

When he biked, he’d always look for the one or two landmarks where he emerged from the Metaverse after escaping. A thicket of trees next to a field of grass. It wasn’t much to go on, though.

He wanted to see Ren. He was a little surprised at himself at this, thinking of the comfort and optimism Ren brought him, but it sounded so nice. He thought of his smile.

“Oh wait—” with a dumb grin on his face he pulled up the pictures Ren sent him on their daytrip to Chiba.

What a charming twerp. Akechi’s body unclenched, his shoulders lowered. He could breathe freely. The existential dread looming over him started to evanesce. He set one of the best pictures as a contact photo for Ren.

Since he was up, Akechi decided to go cycling. He was most comfortable on his bike. He biked until sunrise, bought a breakfast burrito, sat in a park with a lake that he’d found.

And he pulled out his phone, went through his contacts.

He had his phone dial Naoto Shirogane.

They picked up.

“Akechi san. You’re up early. Do you need something?”

“Yes, actually. This isn’t a business call, this is personal—please— don’t hang up.” There was a gentle exhale. “I need to get something off of my chest. I resent you for abandoning me back when I needed you most. I didn’t know my powers were unusual, and I could have benefited from a mentor. I’ve been dealing with this hurt for a long time, and I wanted to invite you back into... my life. As a mentor and ally. I could use your help.” There was a long, defeated sigh on Naoto’s end. A sniff, they blew their nose on the other end.

“Akechi I’m so sorry,” Naoto replied after a while. “You’re right. I was a coward. You didn’t deserve what I did, and I denied my oath to serve and protect. That was fucked up of me. And it’s not fair for you to have to reach out to the person who hurt you, asking for them to conduct themselves more ethically. I...should have reached out.”

They spoke.

They spoke for hours.

Akechi was surprised at how much easier it was for him to be vulnerable.

They hung up, they were to meet up within the next few days, continue talking in person.

By the time Akechi got home, he had a text from Ren.

_‘If you’re not busy please come over tonight’_

Ah. An invitation. He didn’t know why Ren always thought he was so busy.

_‘Is 6 okay?’_

_‘Yes perfect.’_

Perfect, he repeated, smiling to himself. It was nice to be wanted. By Ren specifically. He took off his cycling apparel to get ready for his trip to LeBlanc. 

The sign was flipped to ‘closed’ when Akechi arrived, but the door was open.

Futaba and Ren were there.

They all waved to each other, and Akechi sat at the counter at his usual spot.

Futaba seemed to be stifling laughter. Akechi looked back at her, wondering what was going on.

“So, I’m here...did you want to talk about something?”

Ren smiled blushing.

“Can I...get you anything?”

“I suppose a coffee would be nice. It _is_ brisk out. House blend please.”

Ren got to work, Futaba was still snickering, Ren was blushing.

“Can I ask what’s going on?” Akechi insisted. He hated being laughed at.

“I’ve been wanting to ask for a while now,” Ren started, Futaba had to cover her mouth with both hands.

“What is it.”

“Will you...spend Christmas eve with me?”

That was the last thing Akechi was expecting. Christmas? Christmas eve _proper_? Like a date?

He...shouldn’t assume. He shouldn’t assume it was a date. He’d look like an idiot if he was wrong.

“Ch-christmas with the Sakura family? How— how do you all celebrate Christmas? Gifts mandatory I presume, or is there a secret Santa ritual—”

“ _Ritual_ ,” Futaba snorted.

“No, not with the Sakura _family_. Just with me. I’ll even kick Morgana out.”

Feeling flustered, Akechi nodded.

“Yes, let’s.” Futaba squeaked. Ren smiled, looking thrilled, and he scooted his coffee over to him. Their hands met.

Futaba was dying. She was also recording. She sent the video to Ren, who had his notification sounds off. Doubt started to bubble up in his chest— why him, why Christmas—but he mentally beat it down. We _care_ about each other. We care about each other is why. This will work. Ren wasn’t going to leave him.

“It’s good to see you,” Akechi admitted.

“I missed you.” Ren exhaled, walking away to get them all some food. “It’s been literally a day.”

“A productive one,” Goro replied, sipping his delectable coffee. “I made up with Shirogane san. We’re scheduled to meet this week.”

“Wow…” Ren seemed incredibly impressed. “New social link?”

“No. I don’t think more social links are going to happen for me. I think two personas is it. I’m _un-enrolling_ from your services.”

“Hmm…” Ren mused. "I thought you had more duties..."

“I don’t much care for other people. And I’m okay with that. Going around telling people what they want to hear? It’s not me. It’ll never be me.”

“Well. if you’re okay with it, I’m okay with it.” Ren nodded serving Akechi a plate of curry. “Uh...if you get tired of curry just let me know. I’ll cook you things off menu,” Ren offered bashfully.

“I’ll keep that in mind! Thank you. Though for now this is wonderful. You’re an amazing cook.”

“Thank you! Yeah, I try. On another note, I want to go to Shido’s palace Friday. Will you be ready by then?”

“I’ve been ready for years.”

“I’m talking gear and weapons, too.”

“I’ll be prepared, what do you take me for?”

“Haha, take no offense. Please. Let’s just be as cautious and ready as possible.”

“Akechi can I ask a quick question?” Futaba asked.

“...no.”

“Jeez. Get ya boy, Ren!” Ren looked helpless. He couldn’t _make_ Akechi answer questions. Akechi knew she wanted to ask about psychotic break downs. He could feel it.

Not today.

No.

“It’s getting late,” Akechi insisted, setting down his fork and standing.

“Please—” Ren placed his hand on Akechi’s. He frowned, but he stopped moving.

“ _What_.”

“Can I...walk you to the station?”

“I suppose.” Akechi popped his coat collar and walked swiftly outside LeBlanc to wait. It was snowing.

Ren followed him out, took his gloved hand to hold. 

Akechi, in all honesty, was too mad to even enjoy it. He walked as if Ren wasn’t attached to him, but Ren kept up, keeping a tight grip on his hand.

“Akechi, please, can we talk?”

“No.”

They went down the stairs to Yongen Jaya station. 

The station was mostly empty, it was an off time to be traveling.

“Akechi...please just _listen_ then. No one blames you for Wakaba.” Akechi didn’t even turn toward him. “We all know Shido forced you to do it.” He didn’t answer. “And to be honest, I don’t even think Futaba was going to ask you about Wakaba.” Still nothing. “Can you please say...anything?”

“Did you invite me over to talk about my powers?”

“No I really just...wanted to see you and reserve you for Christmas. You know that.”

“Why was Sakura there?”

“Moral support?! Do you know how hard it is to ask out a celebrity?!” he said in a hushed shout, then he did his best to calm himself down. “And I had her record it. Just for my own personal use. She also likes you well enough.” Akechi didn’t give a damn. He only cared about—

Ren drew close and pulled Akechi into a gentle hug.

“Is this okay?” he asked weakly. Akechi nodded, placing his arms around Ren. “Please don’t be mad. I’m sorry I raised my voice.”

The train arrived, a gust of air blew Ren’s hair to the right, and across Akechi’s nose. 

“Don’t be sorry about that. I’ve done my fair share of unnecessary yelling.” Akechi felt a gentle kiss on his cheek before they separated.

He wasn't quite sure how to react, and he was running out of time to. With a quickness he grabbed Ren's shoulder and pulled him in so he could return a cheek kiss, then turned to promptly hop on the train. "Sakura can message me if she likes. See you Friday." He waved at Ren as the doors closed. Ren was touching his cheek as the train sped off.

In the darkness of the tunnel, Akechi sat in a seat to be in his feelings. The feelings were warm, floral, his heart was beating more quickly. But he also had to laugh at the absurdity. A kiss on the cheek during the year's first snowfall. Right after talking about a murder he committed at of what _felt_ like self-defense, but was really more experimentation and rage. But whatever the reason he killed Wakaba, Shido didn't ask him to do it. Not too long after Wakaba, he'd gone to Shido, warped to the man through his app, and offered his powers. He used Wakaba as an example of what he was _willing_ to do. And he had no problem doing it. Not only did he get in good with Shido, but all of the men he was instructed to murder were scum anyway. What a cruel turn of fate. Ren, through so many forged bonds and cruel fate of his own, was arguably the son of Wakaba, his first kill.

He still felt the kiss on his cheek, he still felt Ren on his lips. He closed his eyes to relish it, committing this day to memory. What a whirlwind of ten minutes.

"What the heck was that?!" Futaba exclaimed when Ren came back.

"He's...self conscious about the psychotic breaks. He doesn't want you to ask him about Wakaba."

"I wasn't going to!" She gripped her head. "I was gonna ask about _Shido_! Like, if he can force psychotic breaks, why didn't he take Shido down from the get go?"

"That is...a good point. Hm."

"I was thinking maaaaybe if there were limitations to his powers, we could help out. There's a gap in logic when it comes to Akechi's skills and everyone on that ship. And if the gap was a cognitive psience contingency I might be able to nullify it if I had enough prep time!" 

"He said you can message him." 

"Uuugh. Your boyfriend is difficult, Ren." She pulled out her laptop and got typing. "He handles problems like a baby."

"He _is_ baby," Ren grinned, enjoying that idea. "None of us were handling our problems well this year. Akechi is no exception. It's easy to run, and everyone in the Phantom Thieves knows all about that. We're all working on ourselves. It's important to not hold Akechi to a different standard."

"Ugh. You're right. I guess the difference between the Thieves and Akechi was we were _implosive,_ self harming and reaching apathy, and he was _explosive,_ harming others, so it's easy to other him. Sorry, thanks for checking me. I guess we're all awful."

"Nah. We're not awful, either. Taking the path of least resistance, never rocking the boat— is what society grooms you to do. Everyone at some point needs to go against their nature and learn about…" Ren had to take a second to think. "Radical self preservation! Learn anger is _good._ "

"What do you mean…?"

"Your anger is the part of you that knows your mistreatment and abuse are unacceptable. Your anger knows you deserve to be treated well, and with kindness. Your anger is a part of you that LOVES you."

"Blowin' my mind, Ren."

"And do you know who's super angry?" 

"I get it, jeez," Futaba blushed. "Oh! Akechi replied. Let's see...he says Shido along with other powerful people are protected by a cognitive psience contingency! I knew it!" She closed her laptop. "Gonna make like a swan and dive into some academic textbooks. Alright! Please do my dishes! Love you!" She ran out of the store.

Ren gathered everyone's dishes and brought them to the kitchen. He wasn't sure what was going to happen, but he didn't want anyone else to have psychotic breakdowns. He wanted them to rot in prison. Having the psychotic break safety net was better than letting Shido get into office...but the Thieves had, as far as he knew, perfected the system. Forcing people to have a conscience with a _chance_ of death was better than for sure... _killing them_ , right? Was he qualified to even think about the ethics of being a psychonaut at this point?

**Dec 9th**

Ren was very ready to see Akechi again, but they hadn't spoken much since he'd come to the café. The Phantom Thieves came together, Akechi was already at the meeting spot looking up at the legislator's building.

He turned his head to regard them all.

"I'm ready."

Ren winced, he was hoping for a smile or even a hello from Akechi. Maybe he was hoping for too much. 

He'd put his feelings on the shelf for now. He knew Akechi's affection for him paled in comparison to his hatred for Shido.

Heart hurting, he nodded.

"And we're ready."

They entered as Akechi tapped the app.

"Noir, Mona…" his hand paused in front of his crush. "Crow."

"Let's get moving," Crow insisted, stomping ahead. Joker caught up to him.

"But you're going to need to keep your composure."

"I know," he growled through clenched teeth. 

"Cool. I don't want to tag you out."

"Honestly I'd like to see you try," Crow shot back, as a threat. Joker braced himself, Skull gripped his pipe, eyeing Crow, daring him to get more aggressive.

Crow sized Skull up, then stomped on ahead. 

The Thieves looked at each other worriedly.

In the legislators room, The four stood before Shido's Giant _Daruma_.

Shido peered down at Crow, and a slow smile spread across his lips.

“Are you the Phantom Thieves?”

“You bet your ass!” Skull shouted.

“You,” Crow pointed. “You’re the bane of my existence, Shido.”

“If you have complaints, I’m willing to listen. I will always listen to my constituents.”

“Cut the crap!” Crow shouted. “You raped my mom, made her life a living hell. Her and I lived cursed lives because of you.” Shido remained grinning. 

“ _That_ woman, I see,” he chuckled. “Are you Akechi under that preposterous get up? Ah. The time has come for you to try to trap me? You should quit while you’re ahead. There is still space by my _boot_ for you to sit. Continue to serve me until I’m through with you, then die, obediently. That is the role you’ll play in my comeuppance as Prime Minister.”

“To hell with you, Shido. I’ll make you pay!” he shouted.

“Everything you’ve done has been for your own selfish gains! You even killed my father, I will never forgive you!” Haru shouted.

“You stole my mom’s research, then took her life!” Futaba shouted. 

“You know what it means to cross me, don’t you?” Shido warned. “All of you. Where did you get your power?”

Joker lowered into battle stance.

“I see words are useless when dealing with imbeciles. No matter. Sacrifices are inevitable in the path of reform. I only require that the foolish entrust themselves to their superiors. I shall guide them."

“You never would have been able to make it this far without Akechi’s help!” Panther aggressed.

“ **I** **t was thanks to me that Akechi was able to get his powers to begin with**.” Crow growled, lowering into battle stance. 

“A cruel person like you has no right to lead this country,” Queen said. “You’re nothing but a criminal who gained power by climbing a staircase of sin.”

“The life of a nation, as opposed to a few sacrifices, there can be no comparison. The ignorant masses only care about their own personal happiness. I'm merely willing to grant that for them. That is the social reform that only I, the one chosen by god, can enact.”

“I’d never accept a leader who makes a teenager murder people! No one would!” Panther lowered to battle stance.

“Look around,” Shido turned to ascend the stairs to the podium. “I’m leading in the polls. I was chosen, and I will be prime minister. I’ll make Japan an unwavering country, revered by the world.”

“You’re truly a disgrace to Japan and its people,” Fox interjected. “Hence, we’re taking your deranged heart.”

“Hmph. Those who disobey me must be eliminated. I thought you were smarter than that. A small leak will sink a great ship, great nations have fallen from such lenience. I will not make such incautious mistakes!”

Cognitive dolls appeared, stood, clapped, until Shido shushed them. Laughing, his stage changed, his form changed. They all looked up to a giant _daruma_. Shido ascended the steps of human sacrifice to his throne at the top.

“Do not compare me to my foolish son. Let me make myself clear, I _will_ steer this country, and I won’t let anything get in my way. Now die without further delay.”

“Joker’s gone through hell because of you!” Skull shouted. “It’s on!”

A golden lion made of humans.

“There is no need for thieves in my mighty country. Only myself and the ones who revere me are needed. I won’t go easy.”

With mild effort they beat the Beast of Human Sacrifice, Wings of Human Sacrifice, Tomb of Human Sacrifice.

“Useless ignorant masses,” Shido spat, walking away from his mangled constituents. “It seems even thieves should not be taken lightly if they come in great enough numbers.”

“Don’t blame the masses, you’re just weak,” Skull teased. Shido peered at Skull, then Crow, then Joker.

“So you’re the one unifying them. You’re more than just a member of the Phantom Thieves, aren’t you?”

“Long time no see.” Joker unmasked himself. Crow looked over at Joker, studying this interaction. Shido smiled at Crow again, then turned his head to Joker.

“You took him to court with false allegations, and you don’t even remember, do you?” Queen hissed. “You truly don’t care about the fate others.”

“Wait... _oh_. The brat who stood against me when I was with that woman. I see. So it truly _is_ you. What an interesting turn of fate, but it won’t matter in the end. Small sacrifices are inevitable to becoming a powerful leader. How would you reach your destination if you stopped to count every ant you crushed on the road?”

“ _Was my mom an ant to you_?” Crow demanded, voice trembling. Shido chuckled.

“He’s totally insane,” Panther lamented.

“I wouldn’t expect the ignorant masses of this country to understand. I’m done getting my hands dirty for such lowlives. **Akechi**.”

Crow shuddered as Cognitive Akechi ran past him to Shido’s beck and call. Standing between the Phantom Thieves and Shido, he turned his gun on the Thieves.

“We’re nothing. Can’t you accept that? It’d be so much easier to surrender your power to the powerful, then die, don’t you think?”

“Akechi is invincible, he’ll only die if I give him permission.”

“That’s right,” Cognitive Akechi nodded. 

“Rrrrhh!” Crow aimed his gun, but Joker insisted he stand down. 

“You noticed too,” Mona nodded. “If Shido’s cognition of Akechi is intangible or invincible, our best chance is your _down shot.”_

“Persona!” Cognitive Akechi took his turn, a shapeless dark mist appeared behind him, and shot out to grip Haru, choking her, turning her inky black with yellow eyes.

“No!” Queen shouted. Cognitive Akechi had powers to turn people psychotic, of course he did. Shido knew that. Haru screamed, fainted, a one hit kill. This wasn't as brutal as when Joker went psychotic, this seemed _diet psychotic_ , seemed to work like a mudo skill. Shido only knew about what he saw about psychotic breaks on TV. Haru would likely recover from this.

Fox ran up to carry a fainted Haru out of the line up, Makoto took her place. Joker quickly shot a down shot, landing Cognitive Akechi on his ass.

The Thieves surrounded him.

“Haha, haha,” Cognitive Akechi laughed. “Do your worst. I don’t matter anyway.”

After an all out attack, Cognitive Akechi had a pittance of health left. He hunched over in his weakened state.

The mangled masses from the tomb started to shift jerkily, scuttling out of their pile and running toward Cognitive Akechi. They started to...boo him. Throw things at him. Chastise and ridicule him. Cognitive Akechi started to buckle at the knees in his despair. Shido laughed, watching the pitiful sight.

“Shido...may I die?”

“You may not.”

“I’ll keep fighting…for you, Shido. Persona.” 

**_Police Connections_ **

Faceless uniformed police officers started to appear. Dozens, nearly 60 came, and a swat team of about fifteen riot police. They stood behind Cognitive Akechi, still hunched and swaying.

The Phantom thieves understood the best course of action was Ma-skills if they had about 70 opponents.

Oracle buffed the team with Heat Riser, and they each did a ma-skill. The police all seemed to be about half dead, and Cognitive Akechi stood, enduring these ma-attacks with one unwavering hit point, unable to die. Crow was getting angrier every second, tearing up. He physically attacked Cognitive Akechi, anxious to slice this cognitive double out of existence, and Cognitive Akechi withstood it, only looking more miserable.

“Now may I die?” Cognitive Akechi begged. Shido sucked his teeth. 

“What a waste of time. I suppose I’ll allow you to die.” Cape off, in restraints, Shido walked over and grabbed Akechi’s shoulder and opposite cheek, the only embrace he’d ever give him, ready to snap his neck.

Joker had his gun at the ready, and shot Cognitive Akechi himself. The double dissipated into black mist in Shido’s arms before he could do the deed.

“I won’t let you hurt him anymore,” Joker said, trembling.

“Keep your cool,” Mona warned, Joker nodded, taking a deep breath, and looked at the police. A child was about to be murdered right in front of them, they did nothing.

“Joker…”

Crow couldn’t breathe, watching his father aim to kill him, watching Joker snipe his cognitive replica at the last second. The sentiment that Joker'd kill him himself before Shido could put his filthy hands on him again...the fact that Joker was visibly upset over him...gave him feelings he wasn’t able to sort out at the moment.

Growling, Shido turned to face the Thieves.

“He was **mine** to kill.”

“ **No** ,” Joker answered simply.

“...It’s time for the Tokyo PD to put an end to this **terrorism**. Handle it, or face the consequences.”

The Thieves had over seventy guns pointed at them, and a hail of bullets came. They didn’t do much damage, but after seventy hits, the Thieves were merely scraping by. Mona healed, as well as Fox on support, running as fast as he could to shove items to his friends struggling the most, giving them coffee and curry as they spammed powerful ma-attacks. Wave, after wave, after wave, after wave. Shots fired, shots fired-- sometimes the police landed a critical and would take a team member hostage. They took Queen, cuffed her screaming, dragged her to the opposing side, demanding the thieves put down their weapons and lie face down to get her back.

“Bull SHIT!” Skull retorted, calling the Thieves Guild to guarantee a successful release. The police kept arresting them, the thieves guild ran out of help. The police started demanding HP for release, Joker had to do warning shots.

After a grueling match, the thieves defeated the police department. They looked rough, they were all panting, their item stock was dwindling, Noir was out for the count.

“This is an endurance battle, lead accordingly,” Mona warned, SP dwindling from spamming healing magic. Panther ran up offering Mona curry who happily ate it, recovering some energy. It helped, but he was still tired. Panther offered Crow curry, who’d been spamming his most powerful magic spells as best he could.

“You have my thanks,” He noted, scarfing it down, feeling the spice wake him up inside.

“Not even the Tokyo police department can defeat you worms,” Shido growled. “You truly are a nuisance, a plague on society."

“Save it!” Skull shouted. “No matter what you throw at us, you’re goin’ down!”

“Fools. Don’t you know I’m _protected_?”

“We got rid of Cognitive Akechi, your pig squad, _and_ your masses. You’re done for!” Oracle shouted.

“You fail to understand. I am protected by science the likes of you will never understand.” Crow’s chest seized. Was he talking about what he thought he was? “Money and power is all you need to become immortal. A little research stolen here, a little funding thrown there, a few murders is all it took for me to become impervious to your tricks.”

Crow’s teeth clenched. Yup.

Shido raised his hands, 12 scientist puppets in white lab coats appeared before the thieves.

“I cannot believe scum like you made me resort to my trump card, but this is the end of the line for you. Science is absolute. Science made me a god, and I demand you perish.”

All of the scientists were faceless except for a clear depiction of Wakaba Isshiki who stood behind them all, who turned and smiled at Crow.

“Hello, Pigeon.”

“Mom?!” Oracle called. From her Prometheus orb she analyzed what she could, but mostly noticed that all of Wakaba’s attention was on Crow. She dropped from her orb with the help of its robotic arms and ran to the front line-- so her mother could see her in person.

“M- _MOM!”_ She shouted, voice breaking. Oracle was completely ignored.

“It’s been a long time, Pigeon.”

“I’m _Crow_ . Fuck your grey, _lukewarm_ idea of my capabilities. Both of you!” he spat at Isshiki and Shido. “I won’t be defined by either of you. I was given the name _Crow_ by the Phantom Thieves, and you’re about to see the _black_ power I obtained, without you! Loki!”

He cast _Megidolaon_ on the scientists and Shido; they were strong, and didn't take much damage from it.

"Mom, _look at me_!" Futaba demanded.

"Focus, Oracle, get back to your post. We're gonna need your help," Joker instructed.

"I don't understand what's going on," she sobbed, but she nodded, and was pulled back into Prometheus. "But I'll help everyone tear it down! Here come the buffs!"

Wakaba pulled out her laptop, and with a creepy serenity started to type on it one handed.

**_Null Psyche Break._ **

The scientists all raised their hands, and a barrier defended Shido, but not them.

 **_Gene Snip_ **

[Click for a picture of Gene Snip!](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cpmlZ3ECtMDbCiiHP7W6mG-01ZcEny59/view?usp=sharing)

All of the Thieves' persona attacks scrambled, became illegible, disappeared, and halved. Each of them used to have 6 attacks, now they each had three, and the names were illegible. It seemed 3 attacks were deleted at random, and the three remaining were mixed up at random.

“No,” Joker breathed, sorting through his 12 personas. All of them had been gene snipped.

**_Demon Graft_ **

Each of their persona stocks increased by one, and a mysterious, corrupted, artificial persona started to creep into their minds.

“N-no, what is this…?” Queen begged, feeling the unwelcome presence unceremoniously rip into her brain. Fearfully, she screamed. “Get it out! No!”

“Ngh…” Mona put his paw on his head. “We need to beat them, but our personas may be unsafe to use right now,” he announced to the team.

Joker hovered over his new, artificial, corrupt persona in his heart, in his new 13th slot. He couldn’t see it, or its attacks. It just gave him a feeling of dread. A hostile, alien seed was planted in his mind, and started to seep into his blood.

“M-Mom…” Oracle could be heard crying in the orb. “Guys! I won’t let this cognition beat you! I’ll hack it out! I just need some time! Uh...don’t give up! I’ll code like I’ve never coded before! I can do this!”

Tears fell from Crows face as he watched the Thieves become hosts, and suffer a small ounce of the pain he’d suffered long ago. He wouldn’t wish a demon graft on anyone, and here he was with three personas—two artificially induced and one gifted to him by a god.

“I’ll take you down,” Crow insisted, raising his gun and emptying his clip into Wakaba.

“Guns are a safe bet,” Mona insisted, “Everyone shoot!”

Makoto started to scream, and scream. She collapsed, shrieking, gagging, gripping her mask, weak to Psychokinesis. Fox ran up and carried her out of the line up, Panther Jumped in.

She was full health, full SP, untainted. 

“ _Blazing Hell_!”

The scientists hunched, health waning.

Shido laughed, raising his hand— red strings shot from his fingers into the backs of the scientists.

**_Funding._ **

The scientists stood back up at full health. The artificial personas in Joker, Crow, and Mona started to grow. It had a heartbeat now, there was breathing in their ears.

“Rgh! _F_ _uck_ this guy,” Panther growled. 

“C-cut the funding cords right away!” Futaba demanded. “It’s their life line! Cut those then you should be able to do some damage!”

Oracle and Wakaba’s fingers typed as fast as they could. 

Oracle never thought she’d be in a tech match with her mother. She lifted her goggles so her trapped tears could properly fall. Noir was down, Queen was down, the team needed her help. She was exhausted, she wanted to scream, cry, but she had to keep her cool and keep on pushing for her friends. She had to defeat her mom. Again.

The thieves tried to cut the cords, they were tough, they each had a life gauge, and while they took turns hacking away, they could feel the alien presence in their souls maturing.

“Oracle!” Joker demanded.

“Uhhhh! Hit my mom—- I mean- hit that lap top! Destroy it!”

Joker ran up to slice it—was able to knock it out of her hands. Morgana hit it a few times with his slingshot, Akechi lunged up and stabbed it with his saber, a few keys falling off of the keyboard.

“No—” Wakaba lamented, picking it back up.

**_Funding._ **

A new laptop appeared in her hands, she opened it and got back to typing.

“That’s just the edge I needed! _Get bent!_ ”

Prometheus flew over the scientists dropping a bomb that finished off the rest of the funding ties. Shido growled. “How dare you impersonate my mom!” Black robot arms lowered from Prometheus, grabbing Wakaba’s wrists and neck, restraining her. She dropped her laptop again and a robot arm gripped it, sucking it into the rainbow orb. “I’m going to reverse engineer this! Buffs on pause, but I’m going as fast as I can! Please hang in there!” Prometheus raised up and out of the way, glowing brighter than usual.

Mona healed, Joker and Crow hit, Panther used magic, Skull and Fox tag teamed taking care of the fallen and offering the battle members items.

The scientists, one by one, started to run from the confrontation. They weren’t fighters, and without funding there was no reason for them to be there.

Isshiki stood before the Thieves alone, panting, battered, health under 25%. She started to fade, and she vanished into a stack of papers in a manilla envelope, which Shido picked up.

“This research is only for those on my ship.” He snapped, and the research vanished too. “As for you, your impudence will be tolerated no longer. I’ll crush you myself.”

“Hold on—Joker I’m starting with you! I hope this works!”

int status;

char slot_name[Slot_13];

printf("Waka_DMN_Graft **\n** ");

status = remove(Waka_DMN_Graft);

—deleted—

“It’s gone,” Joker said, blocking, bracing for Shido’s hits. That was a huge relief, but he still couldn’t use his personas; they were still spliced. But the breathing, vibrating malevolent presence in the back of his mind slipped out of existence.

“I request next,” Crow asked, narrowly dodging a hit By Shido.

“Okay! Uh...Crow? **Two** of your personas are uh...invasive file types?”

“Just get rid of the **new** one!” He did his best to not fly off the handle at Oracle for even bringing it up.

“O—Okay!”

—deleted—

Mona gripped his head, a red 5 appearing above him.

Joker had played enough video games to know that was a countdown— but a count down to what?”

“Uh...guys?” Ryuji asked, as a 5 appeared above Makoto’s head.

“I’m going!” Futaba shouted.

When Akechi physically attacked Shido, They turned to 4. When Panther did, 3.

When Shido did— 2. Joker blocked, 1.

—deleted— 

Mona shook his head, gaining his bearings.

“Switch out,” Joker demanded. Mona retired, Fox Jumped in. Queen’s shrieks magnified, she was gripping and tearing at her chest, her deafening screams filled the entire chamber.

“Shit! Shitshitshitshitshit—-” Oracle sobbed.

—deleted—

Queen’s eyes rolled back, her going limp in Skulls arms. Sighing, he laid her next to Noir.

“I’m gonna try to reengineer Gene Snip! Keep it pushing! Skull, support’s on you until I get this done!”

“Got it,” he replied warily.

“Crow, can you go to support until Oracle fixes your skills?”

“Rrgh,” Crow replied. “Fine.”

“Skull!”

Skull and Crow switched out, and the thieves started to give a proper walloping to Shido, Joker mostly blocking and giving orders. 

Crow paced impatiently back and forth by the fallen girls and Mona who looked like he’d seen hell itself. Crow almost wanted to offer a “First time?” but was too pissed to even try to lighten the mood.

They knew, they all knew. In some scope they knew. They knew what no one else knew. His darkest secret. Shido… Masayoshi Shido apparently knew about the Kirijo Group all along. Funded it. He already knew he’d stolen Isshiki’s research, but...they were in Shido’s _mind_. In Shido’s mind Wakaba had called him Pigeon. 

Which meant...Shido had known about him for years, knew he was an orphan, knew about the struggles of his mom, and most likely...

...facilitated his transfer to the Kirijo Group.

Kept tabs on him enough to know what his goddamn _clinic name_ was.

Kept tabs on him enough to know that he was under the watchful eye of Wakaba herself—

Shido had said “ _It was thanks to me that Akechi was able to get his powers to begin with_.”

Now that he had time to process, Crow felt like a goddamn clown. Shido had him playing into his hand for years. It was probably expected when he'd come to Shido offering his powers. How _smug_ he must've felt. He'd orchestrated the entire thing. The man was masterful. Shido was masterful, and he wanted to end him himself. He wanted him dead. Every cell in his body was on fire.

“Crow,” Mona interjected, slowing Crow’s spiral. “Are you okay?”

“No,” he admitted. “I don’t belong here. I’m not one of you.”

“Don’t say that,” Mona insisted. “You’re a Phantom Thief. You’re one of us.”

“I’m not. I want to leave—”

“Running won’t solve anything. We’ve come so far. Shut the hell up and just admit it, and stay with us until the end. Stop living in the past.” Akechi’s eyebrows lowered. How could this cat understand? But still...Mona was right.

“I don’t know if I can.”

“I’ve never known you to turn down a challenge,” Mona crossed his arms. “You’re the strongest man I know. Joker depends on you, but you keep running!”

“He depends…? On me?”

“Brilliant with books, glacially slow on the uptake.” Mona shook his head. “Besides if you leave now, will you ever be able to forgive yourself?” Mona pointed at the battle. “We have Shido on the ropes. You are about to get your revenge. Forget the past and fight for your future. _Our_ futures.”

Would the Phantom Thieves be able to accept him when he couldn’t accept himself? Even if he didn’t awaken to his personas like them, even if he was a slave, even if he assassinated their families, even if he demonized them on TV, even if he was a crooked detective?

Futures.

Did he have a future... _past_ Shido’s demise?

For just a moment, he thought of Ren, lying back in the passenger’s seat of his rented convertible. His smile with the cracked teeth, his curls flying back in the wind, the shimmering ocean behind him.

No. Fuck bonds. Fuck friends. Fuck day trips to Chiba. Fuck that soda he gave him after he threw up. Fuck sushi making lessons…

 **_Fuck_ ** _…_

‘ _Goodnight, Goro_ ’, Ren’s voice gently sounded in his mind, Ren took off his glasses while on his futon, rolled over to cuddle his sushi plushie.

“No,” Crow whispered shakilly, clutching his helmet.

“Crow! We need healing!” Joker shouted from the front lines, not having a healer on party. Mona looked to Crow expectantly. 

“He called _you,_ ” Mona reiterated. 

“Rgh. I’m coming,” He grabbed some items from the inventory and ran to the front lines to hand them out accordingly. 

“Thank you.” Joker gobbled down a soma then cast _Vacuum Wave_ , catching Shido in a twister. Crow stood in awe for a moment at Joker’s strength, then ran to Ryuji to help him out. Right after he did, he felt tinkering in his mind— Oracle finally hacked his Personas back to normal.

“That should do it, Crow!”

“Perfect. Do you want back in?”

“More than anything.”

“Panther!”

“Switching out!”

Crow, HP and SP restored, stood before Shido who was now three times the size. 

“What is this, his eighth form, now?”

“Lost count,” Skull uttered, casting _God’s Hand_.

It was so sweet to have Robin Hood and Loki again. It was sweet to see his attack set. He cast ‘ _debilitate_ ’ so easily it almost felt like cheating.

>Shido was staring at Crow.

“Crow, block!” Joker demanded.

“Alright,” He crouched, bracing himself.

Shido grinned, and turned to knock _Joker_ dizzy. He bounced off the ground with the force of Shido’s hit.

Which got Crow heated, he gripped his saber, his growl turning into a yell.

“Stay cool,” Skull tried to soothe. “He wants you to lose your composure. He’s just doing petty shit now, hang in there.” Shido laughed. 

“Did I strike a nerve, son?” Crow tried to take some deep breaths until further instruction, but the breaths turned shallow, turning into hyperventilation.

“Cool it, Sempai!” Futaba begged, but it was too late. He was in rage mode. He was going to rip Shido’s jaw off with his bare fucking hands and beat him with it.

“Here,” Fox tossed Crow a relax gel. And— Crow felt better.

“Th-thank you…” Crow mumbled, blushing and embarrassed. Chuckling Joker got back up.

“Showtime, Crow?”

“Let’s go.”

Shido fell. His muscled form shot off of him and he was a man in a suit again, face down in his own palace.

“How could I lose…”

“Apologize to Akechi!” Panther shouted, stomping.

“Apologize to our leader!” Skull demanded.

“I know! I know I’ve caused you a lot of hurt…” Shido sighed. “I incriminated you on false charges,” he nodded to Joker. “And you…” Before he was able to finish his sentence Crow had Shido by his collar. “My _mother_ …” Crow couldn’t even articulate his grievances at this point. He was trembling. “You took everything from me…” he let his tears fall freely.

“I was... truly malicious to you especially.”

“Apologize to my _mother.”_

Shido started to glitch, he screamed and vanished out of Crow’s hand.

“W—what? No!" Crow swiped the air where Shido's shadow used to be. How could this be?! How could he just vanish?! "No! No! Fuck!" Tears streamed from his eyes and he collapsed, hitting the ground with fists. "No…" No...he knew how. A man dead, children missing. This is what the scientists were celebrating back then. Shido would really rather die than grow a conscience.

The palace started to collapse.

“What’s going on?! We didn’t take the treasure yet!” Panther fretted.

“No time to figure that out, grab the treasure and let’s go!” Mona demanded, turning into a truck.

Joker leaped up and grabbed it, and they all barreled into the cat bus, Skull and Fox grabbing the fallen, and they sped off.

“Through here,” Crow pointed, wiping his face with his arm. He’d been navigating Shido’s palace for years. He knew it in and out. They got to a side deck, lined with emergency boats, and they returned to the real world without a scratch.

Oracle was devastated, she laid face down on the grass outside the legislator’s building ready to cry herself to sleep for a week. Haru and Makoto were dazed, but awake.

Everyone was looking at Akechi, once again. He rubbed his arm, beginning to cry. 

“Um—”

Joker ran up and hugged him. Unexpected. Ann followed.

“Akechi-kun…” She sniffed, hugging Ren and Akechi tight. Yusuke shrugged and hugged the three from the side, wanting in. Haru and Makoto sat up, holding their heads. Ryuji helped them up, and the three joined the group hug. Haru cried. Futaba got up and sandwiched herself between Haru’s chest and Yusuke’s back, also crying.

“We did it, Phantom Thieves,” Joker announced. Morgana managed to hop onto Akechi’s head, patting him with his paw.

“This is a lot for me,” Akechi admitted, looking around at the tearful hug circle as the second tallest in the group. The group hug broke. “I should be going,” Akechi sighed.

“No way—” Morgana insisted. “It would be irresponsible not to celebrate our victory together.”

“I get that I just need to process some things.”

“Akechi, you knew my mom?” Futaba asked. Reflexively, Akechi took several steps back, but Joker lunged and took Akechi’s hand before he got too far. Akechi tore his gloved hand out of Ren’s, the legislator's pin Ren tried to give him flew out of their hands at the force of the snatch and fell in the grass.

Joker had tried to give him his father’s trophy. Akechi picked it up, then looked at him apologetically.

"I...truly…" what was the word " _Appreciate_ all of you," he announced. "I've been navigating this palace for years, and I could not have succeeded without you. I...regret the deaths of your parents." He took another step back. "And I...I truly appreciate your...devotion to Justice and working alongside me despite...everything."

"It doesn't matter where you start over, Akechi-kun." Futaba walked up to Akechi who stood a foot taller than her, and offered him hand. Akechi took another step back, looking pained. Mona shook his head, disappointed. 

"Akechi …" Ren begged. "This can't be it."

"Akechi-san," Yusuke's deep voice piped up. "Come, let us—"

"There's no point," Akechi insisted. "There's nothing left. We defeated Masayoshi Shido. I got what I wanted."

Ren's head hung glumly, heart broken. 

"Let him go," he ordered. The thieves stood down, Akechi took another step back. "Have a safe trip home, Akechi San."

Akechi turned to leave.

He wanted to stay.

What was he going to do, surely he could say something? He looked at the legislator's pin in his hand. 

"Let's go," Ren insisted, everyone else started to leave, talking about how they wanted to celebrate Shido's defeat.

Their voices waned and disappeared, and he was alone with an ornate lapel pin. He'd wanted this for years. This meant Shido was going to turn himself in. They'd stolen his heart. Black Condor, Gannet, his mom.

He'd done it.

And he was alone again.

And he didn't know what to do.

He'd never thought of a future beyond taking down Shido. His foresight ended here.

He figured... he'd go home. Wait for Shido to confess.

He looked behind him, the thieves were gone. But of course they were.

**~~~~~**

Ren, after a while, was devastated. Morgana could tell. He still worked his part time jobs, hung out with as many people as possible, played video games, but he talked less. He seemed less energetic. He checked his phone more, thrashed more in his sleep. 

Morgana didn't have a terribly high opinion of Akechi at this point. He knew Akechi had trauma, he knew he was busy, he knew, but it was still hard to watch Ren act like he was okay. Texts, phone calls going unanswered, he'd invite Akechi to play on the 3DS to no avail.

On the nineteenth, Ren just went home early, which was extremely unusual for him. 

**Dec 19th**

"Um Ren? Are we really going home? It's 3pm, it'll end our day."

"Just kinda tired," he replied. Morgana jumped out of his bag and stood in front of the LeBlanc door.

"I'm sorry but I'm putting my foot down." He tapped his tiny paw to the concrete. "You need to visit Akechi or forget about him. Don't let him keep you in limbo like this." Ren looked at Morgana feeling emotionally defeated. "Ya know I never thought you'd keep me _out_ of my house," he sighed.

Ren stood outside of Akechi’s apartment building in Kichijoji, looking at his balcony from the sidewalk. His windows were open, there seemed to be a dim light on—maybe a desk lamp. He made his way up the stairs and stood before Akechi’s door. It was quiet in there.

Why was he terrified?

No, he knew why. He was tired of reaching out only to be rejected. He loved him, and he was emotionally raw. With Akechi sometimes it was _so good_ , but as soon as things got rough, he left. It was like trying to hold sand.

But at the same time he couldn’t blame Akechi. He knew he’d been through a lot. He knew it was hard for him to open up. But time and time again he’d proved himself dependable and worthy of his companionship. He started to wonder if Akechi’s trust was impossible to earn.

“Akechi,” he said, knocking on his door. Nothing. “Please, I know you’re home. Please let me in.” Still nothing. He waited. Nothing, not even a rustling in the house, he didn’t hear breathing, typing. Maybe he actually _wasn’t_ home. “Akechi—” his voice broke, he had to push his glasses up to wipe his eyes. He sniffed. Nothing.

Ren turned, slid down Akechi’s door, sat at the base of it.

“Fine, maybe you’re not home. But if you are, I think you’re a jerk.” He sniffed. “I reach out, again and again. I just want to know you’re okay. Now you’re going to leave me out here crying within earshot of your neighbors. You’re so cold,” he sniffed, wiping his eyes again. “You know what I hate about you, Akechi? Your goddamn martyr complex. You’re always sacrificing yourself like it’s noble or something. It’s not, it’s stupid. I wish you were more selfish.” He sighed. “Like in the boiler room. If I hadn’t slid under those doors at the last second, we might have lost contact. I don’t want that, I don’t want to lose you. You’re always pushing people away, but you hate being alone. I get it, Akechi...but I guess I want you to know that I’m trying _really hard_ to be someone you can rely on. I’m putting in the work. Did you see it?” he sniffed, waiting for an answer. Silence. He was becoming less sure Akechi was home. “I’m sure you did. ‘He’ confessed yesterday. _We_ did that. Together. And even if you don’t open up the door I want you to know you’re dear to me. And that I’ll never forget you.” 

“Uh...Akechi Goro?” A food delivery man walked up to Ren, he had a bag of Chinese food.

“He’s not home.”

“He put in an order 40 minutes ago saying deliver to this address...?"

“...I’ll sign for it.” Ren signed for the food that seems to have been prepaid. “Heh, another fatal mistake. I’m gonna eat aaaaall of this food, ya jerk.” Ren heard a sigh.

“It’s fine. I’m not hungry anymore, anyway.”

Ren heard Akechi walk over and sit on the other side of the door.

“This food is really good,” he teased, opening up the to go boxes and popping a dumpling in his mouth.

“I’m glad. Look, I’m sorry, Amamiya-kun.”

“Sorry for what.”

“Sorry for everything.”

“Hm.” He ate another dumpling. “Go on.” He heard a struggling sigh.

“E-even now...knowing Shido’s confessed...knowing that we defeated him...I can’t face you. Or the Phantom Thieves. I’ve caused you all so much pain.”

“A _ke_ chi...we’re moving on.”

“No matter how forward looking you all are I’ll always be the one who’s destroyed your lives.”

“You’ll always be the one who was instrumental in our _defeating Shido_.”

“There is no redemption for me.”

“Fuck that, you haven’t even tried, Akechi.”

“There’s no possible way to ‘atone’ for the things I’ve done.”

“You haven’t _tried_. All you’ve done is hide and make us worry about you.” There was sighing, a shuffling. The door’s deadbolt turned. “The door opens out, so.”

Ren exploded in the house.

“Himemiya!” He reached for Akechi from the doorway, Akechi peered at him confused from his desk. “You know? From Revolutionary Girl Utena?”

“I haven’t seen it. Sorry, I don’t watch much TV.” He turned back to his desk. “As a matter of fact, with Shido defeated, and in my uh—rather embarrassing state of avoiding other humans—I’m finding that I have a surplus of time.” 

"Well...I reccommend it." He looked around Goro's apartment. It, and him, were a disaster. Akechi's apartment was dark, all lights off except for his desk lamp and his computer screen which seemed to have schoolwork on it. His desk was a mess of what looked to be homework. Giving Akechi space, Ren sat on Goro's unmade bed. Goro wasn't looking at him, he only faced his desk, slowly organizing his papers in his embarassment, trying to look busy.

Well? Ren had made it in the house. Goro's aura was depressed, though. Ren decided to keep Goro talking.

“Do you... like Shoujo?” 

“Uh…” he kinda wished he did. He sighed. “I... like to keep an open mind. Maybe I’ll give this ‘shoujo’ a try. I'll make a note of that anime.” He wrote it on a sticky note.

“What’s your favorite anime?” Akechi was looking flustered. “I uh...I’m sorry I’ve never really watched any. I used to like super sentai, though.”

“Do you... like movies?”

“Sometimes.”

“Let’s go see a movie.”

“...now?”

“Yeah!” Akechi blushed, but he nodded.

“After all this you’re still inviting me out.”

“Well?” Ren looked around Akechi’s house, it was covered in take out trash. It was 4pm and Akechi seemed to still be in night clothes. “I was just thinking you could use some fresh air.”

“Large popcorn please,” Ren asked at concessions with a large smile.

Akechi was freshly showered and clothed. He felt like he was floating, he was conflicted, being out in a bright and cheerful space when his mood was so dark.

“Pretzel and water.”

They bought their treats and sat in the theater to watch a horror movie.

Akechi was obnoxious.

“Flag. Flag. _That’s_ coming back later.” Ren winced.

“No one would react like that."

"Running upstairs, sure."

"The sheriff did it,” he announced as soon as the Sheriff stepped on screen 8 minutes in.

“Shhh!” People seated next to them hissed, some got up and moved completely. Akechi carefully calculated every visual detail; he was largely unphased by gore though ended up gripping Ren’s arm at the jumpscares—quickly unhanding him. “Sorry that was...unnecessarily _loud_ . It’s not even scary, it's just the sound.” He fretted—jumping at the next jumpscare, putting his hand over his heart, exhaling. “The murderer isn’t even wearing gloves,” he noted, tugging on his own gloves. “These theatrics—there’s a dozen better ways to kill someone in that situation yet they reach for the pillow. Inefficient. Could you imagine being killed by such an _amateur_. Fuck—” He gripped Ren at the next jumpscare, who gripped him back.

“Akechiiiii!” Ren laughed. “Shut up I’m gonna have nightmares!”

“Join the club,” Akechi chuckled, giving up and hanging on to Ren. It felt nice.

It was the Sheriff in the end.

They walked back to Akechi’s apartment, and now that he’d gotten out for a while, he was disgusted at the state of his apartment. Ren heard Akechi’s sigh.

“I’ll help you clean,” Ren offered. Frustrated, Akechi nodded.

“Thank you, Amamiya.”

Ren opened the windows to air the place out, Akechi picked up his clothes, Ren picked up the food trash, Akechi did his dishes, Ren made Akechi’s bed and tidied his bathroom.

Ren vacuumed, Akechi mopped.

Akechi felt like he could breathe again. Ren hugged him, kissing his cheek. Ren’s kisses were so sweet. This could hardly be considered friendship behavior, though.

‘He cares about me, and he loves me,’ Akechi reminded himself. When Ren let him go, Akechi was staring into space.

“I’m sorry, I’m not quite sure how to react to this kindness.”

>Flirty answer

>Selfish answer

>>Responsible answer

“There’s no right way to react, I guess. Just whatever’s comfortable.”

“I’m...never comfortable,” Akechi half-joked.

“That’s...unfortunate.” Ren sat on his bed, sizing Akechi up. He felt a little bad about it, Akechi wasn’t in a good place emotionally, so he knew he shouldn’t ask, but. He wanted Akechi. He thought about making out, fooling around, but they hadn’t even held hands, and Akechi was far too sad. He wouldn’t take advantage of his emotional state. Mentally he took a cold shower.

Ren felt like his compliments and flirting went right over his head, and just as well. He felt like if he was more forward with him it’d push him away.

Akechi sat by Ren on his bed.

“I’m sorry I ran away after we defeated Shido. I was just so overwhelmed…” Ren pointedly placed his hand on Akechi’s. “We all were. And I don’t blame you. I was just worried you didn’t want to be around us any more. Around me.”

“I didn’t,” he admitted, letting Ren’s hands stay on his. “I figured you’d all be better off with me as a distant memory. But then you sat by my door and started crying and said you hated that I was martyring myself. I hadn’t even thought about it like that.”

“Can we talk about it? What happened in the palace?” Akechi sucked in his lips thinking.

“If I told you I’d be putting you in danger.”

“I love danger.”

“I’m serious. Real danger.”

“Well. I already have about half of it, I was there for the fight. I’m already in it. At this point it’d be more dangerous for me not to fill in the blanks.”

He was right.

“Okay. Take your battery out of your phone.”

“Whoa what really?”

“I’m dead serious.”

“It doesn’t come out.”

“Airplane mode then, then turn it off.”

Akechi tore the back off of his phone, taking out the battery. He pulled a small lock box out of his closet. “Put it in here.” Ren did. Akechi went to turn off his laptop, he also put it in the lock box. Ren started to get nervous. Akechi carried the box to another part of the house then came back, locking the windows, closing the curtains. He put a towel against the bottom of this front door. 

“Do you have any other tech on you? Anything with a mic?”

“No…”

“Which reminds me.” Akechi grabbed his 3DS off of his dresser and walked away with it to put it in the lockbox. He started the shower in the bathroom.

He walked back into the living room, pulled a record out and set it on his vintage record player, playing something foreign.

He motioned for Joker to follow him. On the way he took some towels and blankets out of the linen closet, then took Ren to the furthest corner of the apartment. He laid the blankets, then towels down, then pillows.

“Sit on those.”

“Okay—?” Ren did.

“The walls and floors here are really thin. I hear my downstairs neighbors having conversations all the time, and I can hear the frame of my bed conduct the vibrations of the voices of my neighbors. Best sit on these to mute the vibrations. We’re going to have to whisper, okay?”

“Wow…” was all he could say. 

“Well…” He paused, then grabbed a sushi plush to hold on to for comfort. “After having some time to sort through what happened at Shido’s palace,” he whispered, “It’s all come together. Shido has always known about me. He raped my mom, and she had me. She put his name on my birth certificate,” he sighed. “Word got to him about that, and he’d threatened her my whole life. She couldn’t get a job because of him, so she started prostituting to take care of us. I mean, stop me if I’m boring you. I just felt this was relevant.”

“Go on, Akechi,” Ren whispered back.

“I thought my mom was inconsequential to him, but the way he said ‘that woman’, let me know otherwise. My mom fought back, fought for child support, tried to press charges, and threatened scandal. As a matter of fact after some sleuthing I found that she’d turned to the police nearly twelve times. All of her allegations were thrown out. Then she tried to sue the police department, to no avail. I never approved of her lifestyle when I was younger, I was disgusted but. My mom was a badass.” He chuckled. “Who did her best. I can see that now. She was _‘that woman_ ’ who gave Shido hell. And she was good to me.” He looked down. 

“She ended up abusing opium, so we went to a rehabilitation clinic in Kanagawa. We lived there for a while, together, and I really wanted her to get better, so I worked really hard to earn my keep, but after several months my mom lost custody. After some research, I found it’d been transferred to Shido, since he was on the birth certificate. But I never _saw_ Shido, and I was processed for fostercare. I was put in my grandparent’s house, then a group home, then another, and I got word that my mom had died. I spent a little time at the police station to answer questions and get processed for my next transfer. That’s when I met Shirogane, who wasn’t on my case, but...they were kind to me. After my mom died, Shido was off of my birth certificate. I pulled up a file, someone at the police department just...doctored it. After that I was processed to live in a group home with these awful people. That’s when I started hanging around the police department a lot, and Naoto started showing me the ropes. Then—” His voice lowered. “I was set for another transfer, but it was more like a kidnapping. 

“I was helped into an unmarked van with a trashbag of my possessions, a sack was thrown over me, and when they took it off I was in a clinic that I later found out was called the Kirijo Group.” Ren nodded. “I thought, for the longest time, that I was unlucky to end up there, but, no, it was by design. Shido said ‘It was thanks to me that Akechi even got his powers’. I got Robin Hood at the Kirijo Group.”

“I see. Futaba told me Robin Hood was artificial.”

“I was...incredibly unhappy that that information leaked. But she’s right. I got Robin Hood much like the artificial personas in that fight—but the process was all wrong. In the palace fight Wakaba programmed persona into us via tech. That’s painless.”

“Painless? It was one of the scariest things to ever happen to me.”

“The real process is you’re made to take tons of drugs, then you’re subjected to danger and trauma. They continue putting your life in danger, exposing you to the metaverse, and give you drugs until you either die, go into a coma, or birth a persona—in which case they start exposing you to the metaverse and train you to combat demons, and start running experiments.”

“On kids?”

“All of us were kids. Orphans, kids no one would miss,” he whispered in reply. “I think the youngest I saw was four. She didn’t last long.”

“Mn,” Ren’s stomach turned.

“I think...I think Shido saw an opportunity. I think he handed me over to the Kirijo group himself, after I couldn’t be traced back to him. ‘Here’s a kid that no one will miss, kill him or make him powerful and give me the research, then kill him later’. Half of me thinks it was that, half of me thinks he wanted me specifically at the kirijo group because he wanted someone with his genetics experimented on to see if it was safe for him to receive powers. That may be why I was under Wakaba’s care specifically, instead of any of the lower tier scientists. As far as I know, she was the highest ranking scientist there, and the battle reinforced that notion.” Ren sighed. “And Shido kept tabs on me closely enough to know my...slave name.” Ren nodded, not wanting to interrupt. “I don’t know how long I was there. Must’ve been months. And I started hearing scientists talk about collapsing palaces, and kids getting trapped there, and that being a _success_.”

“What?” Akechi nodded.

“I’d been trying to escape the Kirijo group since getting there, but I kicked it into high gear. It was some place underground...there were no windows, we were never taken outside, all tools, anything hard was locked up, all tech was locked up, and we were locked in our rooms. Our uniforms didn’t have pockets, either. We only ate with wooden chopsticks...it felt like they’d thought of everything.”

“But you escaped?”

“I did. I think I’m the only one who ever managed to...alive, anyway. Um...Wakaba said she had a ‘mission’ coming up for me, and I figured she’d send me into a palace to get murdered, since that was what she was researching. And I needed a phone, because the phones had the metaverse apps on them. I was apparently willing to take my chances with demons before going on the mission. I got my hands on one, and when I went into the digital devil world, I met a god.” Ren recoiled, having not expected that. “And that god gave me Loki. Loki asked if I wanted revenge on the adults and…”

“Wakaba.”

“...was my first psychotic break. I never learned it from Shido. Loki taught me, and Loki helped me escape. I tried escaping with two other kids, but they both died.”

“Do you know the god’s name?” Akechi shook his head, hugging his plush tighter. “I only know that he said he liked me.”

Ren scooted a little closer and hugged Akechi. He couldn’t imagine.

“After that, I could only think of running to the police department, Naoto was pulling an all-nighter. I told Naoto about the Kirijo group, and they told me to keep hush about it.”

“Really…”

“Um hm.” Akechi placed the plushie aside and hugged Ren instead. “They got me a job and an apartment. I never had to go back to fostercare after that thanks to them.”

“We need to stop the Kirijo Group,” Ren whispered.

“It’s impossible,” He replied. “I have no clue where it is, no one does. And they’ve moved, I’m sure. They always keep moving. Even the police are hush hush about them.”

“I wanna try,” Ren insisted. “A company torturing and killing kids, I at least want to try.”

Face pale, Akechi nodded.

“Let’s try. Let’s take them down.”

Ren broke the hug. “What time is it?”

Akechi leaned to check his microwave’s digital clock.

“About 8:30 PM.”

“We’re gonna need Futaba,” Ren stood.

“You...want to go now?”

“Right now,” he insisted.

“Okay, I’m with you.” Akechi stood. “Will you...make me a coffee? While I pack?”

Ren smirked, nodding.

  
  


**~~~~~**

Ren was somehow able to make his pre-ground instant coffee palatable. He really was a formidable ally.

He sipped his coffee slowly out of his thermos, walking with Ren through Yongen Jaya. It was snowing again.

“At this point, snow is going to remind me of you,” Akechi mused.

“I’m okay with that."

“Why do we have to meet outside,” Futaba complained, breathing air into her small, pink hands. They were all outside the Sakura residence. Akechi and Ren looked at each other.

“I’ll tell her,” Ren offered.

“She deserves to hear it from me,” Akechi shook his head.

As gently as he could muster, Akechi told Futaba about Wakaba and the Kirijo Group.

“It can’t be…” Futaba’s lip quivered. “But...it adds up. I never understood why someone like my mom knew so much about Featherman, and why she was so...emotionally drained toward the end. I never got to go to bring your kid to work day—”

“Actually,” Ren interjected. “We need to know where Wakaba went to work. Do you remember?”

Futaba looked down, her eyes moved from side to side as she processed and tried to remember.

“Actually...now, don’t quote me, since my memory from back then is suuuper fuzzy but I think I know exactly where she used to work.”

“Tell us,” Akechi insisted.

“Now— now bear with me but— a globe? Store? In Ukishimacho?” The boys both squinted, but Akechi nodded.

“A globe store is the perfect front. It’s almost cartoonish.”

“I can’t believe I never questioned that…” she started rubbing her hands for warmth, then flapped them. “Hhhh! Need typey! I’d have answers by now if—”

“No tech,” Akechi shook his head. “Don’t even type or _say_ globe store by your phone or computer. Just give us the crossroads.”

“Um...uhhhh I don’t remember, sorry. But there was a crepe shop across the street that my mom would take me to a lot.”

“That should be safe to look up.”

“Wait, so are you two going without phones?” Akechi nodded. “Oho, no. Not on my watch, ya dumb shits. I’ll give you my phone. I gotta take a few minutes to format it, but it’ll be untraceable, I promise.”

“Fine,” Akechi nodded. “I trust you, we’ll wait.”

“Yes, thank you. Be right back.” She flitted off into the house.

The boys stood there in the snow.

“I wonder if we’ll be done before the trains stop.”

“Transportation is the least of our worries, honestly. If we survive and get stranded, I’ll buy us a taxi. Or steal a bike. Either way don’t worry about it.” Ren nodded.

“Here.” Futaba handed Akechi her fully charged phone, and Ren a thermos of his own. “You looked cold.”

“Thanks,” he smiled, taking a sip expecting coffee— but it was hot apple cider.

“And I don’t need that thermos back if you don’t want to carry it. Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?”

“Boss would never forgive me if he found out,” Ren shook his head.

“Okay well. That phone is a direct line to me and only me. If you need support of any kind, call me, okay?”

“And if we’re caught?” Akechi asked.

“Just drop it. If it detects abnormal shock it’ll factory reset.”

“And you won’t hear anything we say?”

“I promise not to eavesdrop. Unless you want me to. I'd like to?”

“No.”

“Fine.”

“We should get going…” Akechi noted to Ren.

“Hey...Akechi,” Futaba grabbed his coat sleeve. “Do you... hate me?”

“Not particularly.”

“O-okay. I’m sorry about what my mom did to you, and I’m sorry about outing you about your personas’ origin.”

“You did nothing wrong, Futaba-chan. And I should know better than anyone, we’re not responsible for our parent’s mistakes. You’re a good person, Futaba.”

“You too, Akechi-kun.” Akechi recoiled, not expecting that volley. “Take care of my bro, okay? Counting on you.” She turned and left again.

Ren nodded toward the train station.

“Let’s hurry.”

**~~~~~**

They found the globe shop across the street from the crepe shop. They’d also passed a thicket, and an all too familiar field on the way.

Akechi tried to open the door, and it was of course locked.

“I’ll take a crack at it.” He pulled out his lock pick, and crouched, having the doorknob unlocked within a minute. Akechi was incredibly impressed. They tried to open it again, dead bolt.

Ren took Akechi’s glove out of his pocket, slid it on, then punched out one of the windows in the door. Akechi jumped, not expecting Ren to do that so casually. He reached in and unlocked the deadbolt with his gloved hand, then opened the door for Akechi, motioning for him to step in first. Blushing, he did. He knew Joker was good at these things, but seeing his rogue skills outside of the metaverse hit differently. He’d even opened the door with his gloved hand as to not leave fingerprints. Undeniably the hottest thing he'd ever seen. 

They headed in.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And finally  
> Akechi settles a personal vendetta with Naoto's help and continues fighting with the phantom thieves through December. An arrest lands Akechi in a rehabilitation clinic for a year--after which he musters the courage to visit Ren again.

The store was immediately off-putting. Dusty globes sat on shelves, nothing looked like it had moved in years. In the back there was a door that led into an industrial garage, and in the garage there was an industrial elevator.

The boys looked at each other. No globe shop needed an industrial elevator. They’d found it. 

Ren started inspecting it, pushed the button, there was an error message. Ren kicked it, and the elevator doors opened.

“Amamiya?” Akechi asked, wondering why everything was going so smoothly.

“Are you brave enough to go down this?” he asked, stepping in. Akechi also stepped in. “Dying in an out of service elevator trying to end human trafficking? Not the worst way to die.”

“Going down.”

The elevator shuttered and descended.

Akechi remembered this. Long ago he’d gone down this elevator and never came back up. There was no way to know what was down there.

Ren noticed Akechi’s expression—he could tell he was inwardly panicking despite his cool exterior. He took Akechi’s hand, and when he did Akechi remembered to breathe.

“We got this,” Ren assured, trying to be Akechi’s rock, though he was pretty scared himself.

The doors opened up to a dark, abandoned clinic. He used the flashlight on Futaba’s phone to illuminate the place. It was much smaller than Akechi remembered, and he’d never seen this place dark, but he knew his way around.

“Moment of truth,” Ren flipped on a light switch, nothing. 

“Try that,” Akechi shined the flashlight on a control panel by the elevator, and Ren opened the cover flipping all the switches. The clinic groaned to life for the first time in years, lights flickering on, bugs scattering. Akechi turned off the flashlight.

Seeing the place empty, Akechi took Ren on an impromptu tour. 

“This was the cafeteria,” he noted, passing a hall with tables still out. “These are all one way mirrors. This was...where I was trained.” There was a large, bleak room, an old TV, and a desk where a computer used to be. Blank papers were all over the place, the whole clinic looked ransacked. Furniture was toppled, cabinets were open—but there were no files, books, tech.

“We called this the jump off point,” Akechi pointed to a room that had white walls, but the walls had scorch marks. “It’s where we entered the artificial metaverse. I wonder how long this place has been abandoned. I wonder if they moved locations when I escaped, worried I might come back.”

“Entirely possible.”

“This was the medical clinic where they patched up kids as well as took data on them. Actually…” he walked in and started searching around.

“Need help?”

“No.” He searched the entire place, didn’t seem to find anything. “Remember the drugs I was talking about? We were forced to take them here. I was trying to find a bottle or spare dropped pill. I’ve always wondered what was _in them_ to make kids...birth and sustain their personas.” He scoffed. “Disappointing. While this place lies in disarray, their move was incredibly efficient.” He walked back into the hallway. “And here, where I slept.”

Incredibly small childrens' bunk beds. He gently closed the door to the barracks, for no reason in particular, and walked away looking pained. “I suppose I’m not entirely sure why we’re here. I don’t know what I was hoping to find. It’s a little fucked that I lived in a windowless bunker under a globe store for a year, but at the same time I’m glad you’re seeing it. It makes this place feel like less of a fever dream.”

"I believed you."

"I know."

"Check these out," Ren motioned to a small office that had several filing cabinets with combination locks, having used third eye. A cabinet stood out to him.

It took Akechi a moment, but his eyes widened when he understood what Ren was getting at. He probably had the code of one of these drawers, a sequence that had been committed permanently to his mind. 

76399

"Good call."

Akechi crouched, trying the number on one filing cabinet after another. Several identical filing cabinets lined the wall. Most were empty, some were open with their codes already in not having been relocked during the move. Akechi found boxes of pens, gauze, tape, junk. 

"Hmm." The detective paused, hovering over a cabinet whose combination was carefully set to 00000, while others that were locked had been scrambled to random numbers. That one was the one that stood out to Ren. Akechi was nervous to open it. He crouched, staring at it, feeling a familiar dread grip his chest.

"Breathe, Akechi," Ren reminded, walking over and placing his hand on his shoulder. It was time. Akechi rolled in the combination, pulled, and it opened. There was a single phone inside, along with a note. 

Akechi reached in, taking both, and unfolded the note first. In blue pen it simply said ‘for Pigeon.’ Akechi pocketed it, and inspected the phone. His heart was racing, he could hear the pounding of his heart in his ears. This dusty, dead, old model smartphone...could be it. It could, possibly, be the key.

“Ren I think we’ve done it.”

“Is this one of the old phones that you escaped with?”

“Yes, they were all the same model.” Akechi tried turning it on to no avail. “It doesn’t look damaged. Do you have a charger on you? It takes a micro USB.”

“No.”

Akechi exhaled, looking at it. 

“This phone...was placed here for me. I wonder who put it here…” He looked at the note again. The writing...didn’t leave any clues, it looked hurriedly scribbled. It could have been anyone. “Not only does this phone probably have the metaverse app on it, but the Kirijo group had its own closed telecom loop. This phone might still be on the Kirijo group telecom network. With some digging, with Futaba’s help, we might be able to use this phone to find all of the phones still on the telecom network—”

“—Exposing all locations of the Kirijo group.”

“Amamiya I’m trying to not get my hopes up,” he whispered shakily, trembling. “But this may work...We might succeed in exposing a child trafficking ring before Christmas.” He gripped the phone tightly, shoulders up, tense. 

“Akechi kun, have faith. Even if this phone doesn’t work out, We’ll still expose the Kirijo group some other way. We’ll keep trying, okay?” Ren offered his hand to Akechi, who took it.

“I can barely breathe,” Akechi said as they entered the elevator. They ascended together, and walked back out onto the snowy streets of Ukishimacho.

**~~~~~**

"My chest is trembling." He stopped, putting his hands in the pockets on his cashmere coat. The night was still, the stars were just starting to dissipate in lieu of the sunrise, the snow on the ground reflecting the brightness of the sky. Akechi faced his head upwards, his face was serene, yet contemplative. Ren’s heart fluttered as he watched Goro’s hair fall back. “Amamiya. Is there something stronger than love?” He sighed, a white huff left his lips in the crisp air. “Ardor, reverence...trust?” Ren didn’t have anything to say. “Sometimes I think about if I could _really_ live without you. Live my 'best life', as you put it. I think about how I almost killed you... I was so foolish. I see that having you as a bond is worth our weight in gold.” His eyes opened and he regarded Ren, handing him the phone. “I trust you. Trusting is a first for me. I really never thought I would be able to say that to anyone. Please give this to Futaba Sakura, and let me know when we can meet to figure out next steps.” Ren took it.

>You recieved an old model phone.

Akechi lowered into a deep bow to Ren; Ren had never seen him to bow to anyone. “I don’t have the words to articulate how much you mean to me. I’m in your debt, and I ask that...you always be in my life. After finding an ally in you, a comfort in you...I’m feeling selfish. I beg you to stand beside me, and to view me as your equal and companion from here on.”

“O-okay. Please stand up Ake-Goro-Kun…” Akechi did, slowly opening his eyes, and Ren excitedly hugged him. Closing his eyes and humming a laugh, Akechi hugged him back.

Loki and Robin Hood sprung from Akechi’s heart, and, shrouded in light, fused to form Hereward. Both Ren and Goro watched this spectacle above them against the sunrise, and watched the light reenter Akechi's heart.

“I love you, Goro-Kun.” 

Akechi smirked, taking Ren's hand to walk toward the station together.

“Love. I’ve never been a fan of that word. People throw it around, it’s a platitude as insipid as every other greeting. But...I’ll accept your love. If love is what’ll keep you in my life, I won’t question it.” He was frustrated that Goro had picked apart his confession, but he supposed he was still getting what he wanted. “Ren-kun. You always come through for me, I don’t know what I did to earn your devotion or kindness, but know that if you ever need me I will be there for you. I want you to deem me worthy of your vulnerability. You can depend on me, okay?”

“That makes me so happy,” Ren beamed. 

“Me too.” Akechi smiled a little wider. “The idea of you depending on me excites me. Depend on me for something soon, okay? Now then! Let me treat you to some breakfast.” Akechi walked ahead. “If we can find anything open that is.”

“If not I’ll just cook something for you at LeBlanc.”

“Oh. I’d specifically wanted to do something nice for _you._ ”

“Cook me something at your place?”

“I don’t know if I…” Akechi was not confident in his cooking, he mostly ate out and had instant food. He didn’t even know if he had breakfast food _to_ cook. “Leave it to me.”

**Dec 20th**

As they walked together, Akechi dropped by a market that had just flipped their sign to open. He walked in and got eggs, fish, some rice, some broccoli, and a small bottle of cooking wine. He had Ren stand outside so he could buy the _mirin_ with no problems. 

Akechi tied his cleaning apron around his waist to try his damnedest to make Ren some edible food.

“You’re so handsome,” Ren complimented from the futon, eliciting hesitation from Akechi.  
“Is that why you love me? Because I’m handsome?”

“I only like you ‘cause you’re cute,” Ren joked.

“I was hoping you liked me for my sunny disposition,” he rolled his eyes, pretending to be disappointed. He finished tying the bow behind his back. “But it turns out you were shallow all along. Willing to kill, die, and thwart evil corporations that have been terrorizing the youth of Japan for generations for my button nose and brown eyes. I suppose I shouldn’t complain, though. If you were into ‘personalities’ instead of looks, I’m sure you’d be eating breakfast with someone else.” He set out his frying pans, feeling a bit over his head, but he oiled the pans, cracked some eggs, placed some wine in a saute pan for the fish to cook in, put some broccoli in, then put a lid on to steam it together. “But, looks are fleeting. Will you be my companion when I’m old and covered in scars? When I start balding?”

“I love scars and bald.”

“Okay. I won’t burn your eggs on purpose.”

They were burnt on accident.

**~~~~~**

Around 11am, Ren arrived at the Sakura residence, Futaba hopped out within seconds. It didn’t look like she’d slept. He relayed the information he’d gathered and handed her the phone.

“Challenge accepted. Heheh, see ya!” Without another word she ran back into her house. Ren walked to LeBlanc to get some sleep.

In the evening, Futaba made a group chat with Akechi and Ren stating ‘ _Meet me at LaBlanc at 5!'_

Akechi arrived at 4:45. Ren was working though he waved at Akechi who waved back.

“Your order?”

“I’ll take your recommendation,” Akechi smiled. “Do you think Sojiro Sakura san would pay me to write a review of LeBlanc?”

“Things are probably too hot right now. You should ask him in a few months. He might?” Ren got started on the house brew.

Futaba hopped in at 5pm on the dot.

“Hi guys! Curry!”

“Right away Futaba.” Futaba climbed up on a chair right next to Akechi.

“We won’t be talking here, I was just hungry.” Akechi winced, the urgency of the matter seemed more important than dinner, but it was true it was too dangerous to talk around customers.

“Is that Goro Akechi?”

“I heard he’s a regular here,” a few murmurs popped up from some patrons in the booths.

“I just need a couple bites so I can focus, I know this is important. I haven’t eaten all day.” Akechi nodded, trying against his nature to be kind despite his personal agenda. “I’ll text Sojiro to come get to work so we can steal Ren and talk shop,” she said, pulling out her phone and texting, her thumbs a blur. “Once Sojiro comes home we’re gone, I promise.”

Ren set curry in front of Futaba, stir-fry in front of Goro, who looked at it astonished.

“You made this?”

“I’m telling you I’m a good cook,” he laughed.

“Indeed,” he mused, digging in.

“Awe! Off-menu bae!” 

Akechi rolled his eyes.

“Amamiya kun, or should I say 'Off-Menu Bae', will you be joining us?”

“When Sojiro gets here, yeah.” He left to serve a few customers. Futaba grinned, kicking her feet while she ate.

Sojiro walked in, pulling off his coat, and walking behind the counter to relieve Ren.

“Thanks Boss.”

“Do your thing.”

They headed up to Ren’s room.

Knowing the drill, the boys secured their electronics so they could all talk frankly.

“So I have good news and bad news,” Futaba started. “ _Bad_ news is, the telecom that that phone was on no longer exists.” Akechi’s fists balled and heart broke, a wave of desperate disappointment hit him in the chest. “Good news is...I found it anyway!”

“W-what, Sakura chan?”

“Yeah! The wave lengths were only slightly modified, so I’ve pin-pointed every location that uses the new telecom. I also hacked into the app the phone you gave me had, and can link you to a site where I’ve basically copied the coding. We now have their tech and can enter the metaverse wherever we want. I spent most of the day testing it.”

“Reckless—” Akechi chastised. “The amount of demons that app can muster, it’s so incredibly unstable—”

“ _Was_ unstable. It’s kinda hard to explain, buuut correct me if I’m wrong. When you used the phones they were connected to computers to help focus the energy, right?”

“The jump off point, yes. It was always connected to a computer, jump off was facilitated by scientists and always done with supervision.”

“And when you didn’t have a computer to guide jump off you ended up in a random spot, right?”

“Yes…within a few miles away.”

“And the demon realm was unregulated, right?”

“Yes, it felt like I was going to fall straight into hell.”

“Well, with my knowledge of cognitive psience, and my knowledge of hacking palaces and the Metaverse, I was able to generalize some things over to fill in the gaps the code of the N.K Nav app was missing.” Akechi and Joker looked at each other. This all seemed impossible.

“I got that insider knowledge! Street smarts, life experience those scientists could only ever dream about! So yeah!”

“Sorry Futaba this is a little over my head,” Ren begged. “In layman's terms please.”

“Oh! Uhhh...one, I found all locations of the Kirijo Group. Two, I improved the app on that phone you gave me and it does some pretty cool stuff that I will explain later. Three, I took the program from the phone that made it work in the metaverse, so that our tech works in the metaverse too! Like, our phones and stuff. Like, it’ll work _properly._ Like we could bring battery powered things, like a real car or a laptop or a...nintendo switch. And last, I explored the ‘metaverse realm’ Akechi was talking about, it’s set up like a videogame! Weak shadows in the front, and as you proceed stronger ones start appearing. It’s like a plateau. But there’s a good chunk of coding that _facilitates_ that plateau. I assume the scientists' computers provided that plateau. But if that coding is gone and you enter just with the phone, that plateau safety net is gone and—yeah. It’s a demon free for all. Weak monsters, strong monsters, they’re all down there in a pit and have the power to kill ya. It’s their home, their turf. It’s like—barely conceptually the metaverse it’s just like.. _.literally hell_. The fact that scientists were able to attach modern coding to command eldritch demons and their realm is baffling, but here we are.”

“Futaba you’re brilliant,” Ren shook his head in disbelief.

“You bet your ass! Okay, so try to wrap your head around _this_ : Stop me if I fire off like a canon okay? Sooo, these apps cannot _control_ demons. They can only _add constructs_ to their realm and help you enter it, like that plateau. The way they controlled the demon flow was by building a chain of rooms with coding— so on one end was the pit of hell, and the other end was the jump off point and a fairly safe lobby to test your powers. That lobby has a tiny door that lets tiny demons through. That opens to a room with a slightly larger door, which opens to a room with a slightly larger door, and so on. The demons roam freely, but only some are small enough to make it through the doors. So the concept for this entire operation is pretty simple. BUT now that I have this technology, I’m thinking that I can use it to _merge to_ other constructs and it may be possible to rescue children if they are in the metaverse. I just need to connect **my** construct to an existing **Kirijo construct** , then lead them to safety through a **different route**. They’ll probably be persona users, so they may need convincing, but hopefully if we manage to find kids in the metaverse they’ll be willing to leave the human trafficking ring and follow us instead.”

Ren noticed Akechi stopped breathing again.

“So that’s an idea for an affront on the metaverse side. Now on _our_ side...in order to properly destroy the Kirijo group, we’ll have to attack all their bases at once. From what you tell me this organization is notorious for moving locations and covering their tracks at the first sign of trouble. We’re going to need **_major_ ** help.”

Akechi nodded.

“I think I know who to call.”

**~~~~~**

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty damn sure, Shirogane san.” Naoto exhaled shakilly. “I just need a moment...to process. How— how did you find this information Akechi kun?”

“Classified. But it’s genuine, I promise.”

“Can you...fax me a map of the locations?”

“Uhm…” He had to go to the police department for that, which he didn’t want to do, but he figured Futaba with all her tech knowledge could manage to do that. “I’ll make it happen. Also stop asking kids for faxes, what are you, seventy?”

“It’s more secure,” Naoto replied flatly, only twenty one.

“I’ll just send it via carrier pigeon, it would literally be less of a hassle.” They chuckled.

“Duly noted, Akechi kun. This is the last fax I’ll ask you for. Say, you seem different. In a good way. I don’t need to know the details, but I can hear it in your voice. I’m happy for you.” Akechi hummed. 

“Thank you for your help, Shirogane san. I’m in limbo about this, I really want that group to go down. You know I do. But limbo is better than hell. I risked my life to get these leads, please be cautious.”

“I always am. Take care, I’ll be in contact with you soon.”

They hung up.

Just outside LeBlanc, Akechi pocketed his phone. This was really happening.

He walked back inside the cafe and up the stairs where Futaba and Ren were waiting for him, but his phone buzzed. It was Naoto again.

“Akechi kun,” Naoto insisted hurriedly. “Can you be at Haneda airport first thing in the morning? At 0800?”

“I can. Can I bring two friends? They’re important to the mission.”

“I’m sorry— _friends_ , Akechi kun?” Just then Akechi realized how easily he’d used the term. “You have friends!” Shirogane seemed legitimately ecstatic for Akechi. “A-absolutely, yes, bring them! You seem to trust them with something this important to you, so yes. I trust your judgement.”

“0800 then.” He hung up, looking at Ren and Futaba. “We need to be at Haneda airport at 0800.”

“Well then I need to go to bed _now_ ,” Futaba sighed.

“Before you go, I need you to send a fax of the map to Naoto Shirogane.” Futaba groaned.

“Fax? Really? I’ll just chisel it on a stone tablet or put a message in a bottle and throw it into Tokyo Bay it- would- be- _faster_.”

“Thank you for your hard work, Futaba,” Akechi nodded. "And I agree."

Him and Ren were alone. Nervously, he held his hands behind his back, thinking of something to say.

“Akechi,” Ren offered. “Wanna stay over? We’re about the same size in clothes.”

“I want to stay.”

“You can sleep on the couch or in my bed with me. It’s a full size, so.”

Akechi thought. He certainly didn’t want to sleep on that old couch. And he _did_ really like Ren. And it _was_ cold outside. And it _would_ be incredibly efficient to travel together in the morning. And they _were_ the same size clothes. And they _did_ care about each other. ‘I’m going to let myself have this,’ Akechi thought to himself resolutely.

“I’ll sleep in your bed.” Ren couldn’t contain his surprise, watching Akechi slip off his scarf and cashmere coat.

“Okay, um...bathroom’s downstairs, as you know. I might have an extra toothbrush...If you want to bathe tonight or in the morning you know where the bath house is. Laundry is right next door.”

“Thank you for your hospitality, Ren.”

At the end of their night routines, they both crawled into Ren’s bed, Morgana like a real homie went to go sleep at the Sakura residence. Ren laid on his back, feeling Akechi’s warm presence next to him.

“Amamiya? I’m a restless sleeper. I’m sorry in advance.”

“I know, it’s okay, I sleep pretty heavy.”

A bout of silence.

“Amamiya, are we still on for Christmas?”

“Yes. I’ve kept it clear for you.”

More silence.

“I’m going to pay you back for everything you’ve done for me someday, Amamiya.” Ren yawned.

“Don't worry about it, Goro kun.” Goro yawned, rolling over and turning toward Ren, looking into his eyes with a soft directness he was unused to.

"One last thing, Amamiya. You're popular, and you've made a lot of bonds, those bonds come with strength as well as make you vulnerable. Are you just as vulnerable as you are strong?" Ren nodded.

"Yes, I thought it was obvious."

"You always seem so secure." Ren sighed, with a weak smile.

"It was very durable of me to sit outside your front door and sob because you wouldn't answer my texts, right?" Akechi sucked in his lips, only just remembering. "I couldn't eat when you left after Shido's palace. I was also scared shitless going into that old, industrial elevator. I practiced in the mirror what I would say to ask you out for Christmas... for _two days_ , and Futaba came for moral support. I _get_ that it's easy to perceive me as some sort of rugged, reinforced battle god but," he shook his head. "I'm seventeen and I don't know what the fuck I'm doing other than trying to stay out of Juvie. I'm just doing my best."

Akechi hesitantly reached over and pulled Ren close to him— on top of him for a hug. It was so comfortable, they immediately fit together like puzzle pieces.

Ren's chin was over Goro's shoulder, his arms hugged him tightly. One of Goro's hands lied on Ren's back, the other crept into his curly hair. Ren placed another peck on Goro's cheek.

"Your hugs are world class, you've been holding out on me Goro kun." Goro snickered delighted, feeling Ren's racing heart against his chest, feeling his own heart swell.

"Am I heavy?"

"Yes, but it's nice. I feel relaxed."

"Goodnight, Goro."

"Goodnight, Ren."

Goro slept through the night for the first time in years.

**Dec 21st**

Sojiro let out a soft 'hoo boy' when an embarrassed, messy haired Ren and a grinning Goro in Ren's clothes crossed the café to leave at 6:45 the morning. Akechi couldn't help but thrive in the awkwardness. He was great at being bold.

"Sit down, boys. I'll fix you some breakfast. I can tell you're in a hurry so it'll be quick."

Hunched, Futaba pushed into LeBlanc and sat on the other side of Ren.

"So this is what the morning feels like," she complained, voice raspy. "Sojiro, OJ please."

"Are you all heading out together?"

"Yeah we gotta be at the airport at 8 to help take down a child trafficking ring."

"W-WHAT!?"

"All in a day's work, Sojiro. OJ please."

Sojiro looked at Ren to verify, who nodded.

"We're meeting Naoto Shirogane there, the original Detective Prince, and some of his cohorts," Akechi added. "We'll take care of Futaba."

"I'll be sure to check in with you as we handle this," Ren promised.

"Well you'd better! My custody situation is rocky as it is, and you were _supposed_ to be lying low."

"We gotta save the kids!" Futaba insisted. "It's important that I do this! I... _have_ to do this."

**~~~~~**

Naoto met the three and led them through a VIP pathway, away from the hustle and bustle of regular Christmas travelers. At the side of the airport they came to a landing strip with a stretch limo and 4 personal jet planes.

The three were intimidated and confused.

A beautiful woman stepped out in stilettos and a snow white fur coat, and walked over to the three. Her hair was maroon, wavy, but her outfit seemed to be a utility outfit for battle.

"Good morning, I've heard so much about you from Shirogane san."

"You're so prettyyyy!" Futaba exclaimed, which softened the woman's fiercely intense presence, and she smiled coolly.

"Thank you. My name is Mitsuru Kirijo." Akechi stepped back, dubiously, shooting Naoto a look of betrayal. "Your reaction is understandable. The Kirijo group was founded by my family, and I've dedicated my life and my resources to ending the human trafficking my family started, and making reparations to the survivors." She bowed to Akechi. "You in particular have my sincerest apologies, Akechi san. While I awakened to persona via trauma exposure by the the Kirijo group scientists, I was still treated like an heiress. I'll never understand the pain you were subjected to." She stood erect again and offered Akechi, Ren, and Futaba _meishi_.

"That's a direct line to me. If you ever need anything at all, please contact me." Her eyes landed on Akechi. "I've known about you for a while. I decided not to reach out, as I didn't want to upset you, but Shirogane san contacted me about you after you found them the night of your escape. They requested I fund your hotel stay until you found permanent lodging. Things like that are easy for me to do."

"Ah, so it was you."

"Nevertheless, time is of the essence. Please explain to me, in detail, what you know, and how you found the locations."

The three took turns explaining everything to Mitsuru, who took a quick liking to Futaba.

"A navigator that can hack metaverse tech and cognition…connecting constructs to the Kirijo Group's metaverse constructs to save children through the metaverse…" Mitsuru was floored. "I love it! I've never heard anything like it. Look, if you ever need a remote highschool job Sakura san, I strongly urge you to consider working for me. I pay well."

"Y-y-yes ma'am!"

"And you two, I can't thank you enough. You've done so much. I'd like for you to oversee the operation. As for the groundwork, I ask for you to trust us with it. We will attack in this world and in the metaverse simultaneously, as per Sakura’s suggestion.”

“We’re gonna need more people, like _way_ more people,” Futaba fretted. Akechi scoffed.

“Can I ask what all ‘this’ is?” he asked, motioning to the limo and jets. Mitsuru turned and nodded to the vehicles, people started piling out.

Futaba started jumping and flapping.

“Haah! It’s Yukari Takeba! Agh! Feather Pink!” 

“Who?” Ren asked.

“She was the very first pink super sentai to get her own show! Haah! Archer badassery!”

“And persona user,” Takeba added, walking over and bowing to the three. Futaba bowed deeper. “The Kirijo group took everything from me. I over-knighted from Kyoto to be a part of this.”

“Hello everyone!” A small, homely looking girl with seafoam hair in a braid jogged over excitedly. “I’m eager to help you all!”

“Yamagishi,” Mitsuru noted warmly.

“It’s lovely to see you again, Mitsuru san!”

There were a group of four fashionable and seemingly middle age team members that Mitsuru beckoned, who all stepped out of the Limo.

“Kido san, Suou san, Nanjo san, Kirishima san, I’m deeply honored you could make it.”

“Fuukaaaa!” a voice as sweet as a bell called, and Rise Goddamn Kujikawa bounced over. Squeezing the homely girl.

“Aaaaaugh!” Futaba was jumping higher. “Why are there so many celebrities here?!” Rise slid over and squished cheeks with Naoto.

"Naoto kuuuuuuuun!" Akechi could barely comprehend how a career celebrity like Rise Kujikawa seemed so familial with such a stoic detective like Shirogane. Rise hung on them, squeezing 'em until they laughed and hugged her back.

[(Click for cheek squishes!)](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BT6U1t5q-EoKbwnx2CPfd8NWXiQ6znoI/view?usp=sharing)

[(Click for close up of PT)](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J68ZIQDVhAQrB0thgkybuFPnlqodFWQp/view?usp=sharing)

“I missed you too, Rise chan.” After she planted kisses on Naoto’s cheek, she turned to Akechi. “Pleasure to finally meet you! I’ve seen you on TV. We should do lunch sometime, Next-Generation Detective Prince!” 

“I’ve seen you on TV as well,” Akechi said slowly. “May I ask... how you know Shirogane san?”

“We went to the same highschool,” she beamed. “And I have a persona! I’m his Navi. We’ve been through so much, _and_ I taught this fool how to dance. If Naoto kun says this mission is important, it’s top priority for me! Movies can wait.”

“Ahh! Team Navi!” Futaba exclaimed, still flapping.

“Team Navi!” Rise and Fuuka exclaimed in unison. 

“Good morning! I’m Aigis, at your service.”

“I’m Labrys,”

“Genesis,” three AI bowed and offered their services to Futaba, who at this point hugged onto Ren’s arm, overwhelmed.

“Am I dreaming? Is this real? Am I talking to three _actual robots_ right now? Pinch me, Ren!”

“These are **anti-shadow suppression weapons** , but also our friends, and my employees,” Mitsuru nodded to Futaba who couldn’t help but scream her delight.

“I will work for you! I’m convinced!” She unhanded Ren and ran up to them, inspecting them. “Oh my word,” she circled them. “Poggers. You three are beautiful.”

“Thank you!” Aigis smiled. “You are also beautiful.”

“The Kirijo Group developed battle droids to destroy demons?” Ren asked, and Mitsuru nodded.

A wild looking man with a cape and boxing gloves, a slender man in a suit and cap while wielding a bat, and a sinfully handsome young adult that seemed about Akechi’s age, trailed by an akita with Albinism approached.

“I’m surprised you came,” Mitsuru smiled. “Iori, Amada, Sanada san...Koro-chan. It does my heart good to see your faces.” She bent to pet the dog.

“Rogue branch of the Kirijo group, this is too important to miss.” Akihiko Sanada punched his hand. “I've been training for this, put me on the _front fucking line_ ,” Sanada growled.

“I won’t let them destroy any more families,” Amada’s handsome face twisted into a scowl—Akechi felt an inexplicable familiarity with him.

“So... _you have an army_ ,” Ren said matter-of-factly.

“We call ourselves the Shadow Operatives, and we called in our reserve warriors for this operation. Some retirees have even rejoined just for this mission. Many of these people have been hurt by the Kirijo Group, or more specifically, rogue groups that use our tech and operate under our name.” Mitsuru caught the steamed look Akechi gave her. “... _Let me reiterate_ , our company was _extremely unethical_ and _did_ engage in illegal activity. I’m doing my best to turn it around. Scientists, ex-employees, still go underground and use their knowledge and our tech for their own selfish gain. I’m doing my best to stop them…” Mitsuru’s confidence faltered, she was doing her best to explain, but no amount of explanation or good intentions could fix what had been done to Akechi. Yukari walked over and took Mitsuru’s hand.

“We’ll crush them,” Yukari insisted.

“The dog...is a persona user?” Futaba asked, reaching her excitement maximum. Akechi looked dead inside at that question, looking over at the dog, who barked.

“He says he is,” Aigis smiled.

“And you speak dog?! I’m losing it!”

“I need to sit down,” Akechi mumbled exasperatedly, taking Ren's arm for stability. How could a goddamn _dog_ have a persona? After he watched countless children struggle and die trying to summon one. After he himself...

 _Ya know what? This is fine. Why try to analyze anything at this point?_ Akechi looked around at the Shadow Operatives.

“So all the people hurt by the Kirijo group now _work_ for the Kirijo Group.” He looked at Naoto again, accusingly, who looked sincerely apologetic. “I suppose this is our best shot though. The Tokyo PD is crooked, I should know, so this circus of…” he looked around. “Eighteen persona users, a few robots, and a dog is probably the best we can ask for.” Ren could tell Akechi was barely keeping it together.

“Um...let’s find a comfortable place to hold a meeting,” Ren suggested to everyone.

In an airport suite with a white board, the Shadow Operatives sat with Ren, Akechi, and Futaba at conference tables, Futaba was up at the front, too excited and in the zone to remember that she was in a room of strangers. Her black dry erase pen scribbled notes on the board, her hand was nearly a blur. Akechi sat in the back with Ren, as did Amada, who pet his dog at the opposite side of the room.

“Boom, babe!” She mic dropped her dry erase marker when she was done, then when she saw everyone’s eyes on her, she laughed nervously and skittered away to sit next to the rather bubbly team of Navigators.

“I’m a little worried someone’s phone is gonna pick up this conversation and it’ll ping the group,” Futaba lamented.

“Impossible,” Fuuka smiled. “My persona is detecting the telecom waves, and shielding our signals from them.”

“And my persona’s scrambling all other suspicious signals as we speak," Rise added, hugging onto Fuuka.

“But... we’re not in the metaverse?”

Fuuka brought out her computer, Futaba leaned in to look.

“With Kirijo tech I can emit just enough concentrated metaverse energy with my device to use my persona’s powers. It’s like three-meter radius?”

“Oooo! Gimme! I need that program to live!”

“Sending link now,”

Futaba’s phone pinged and she shrieked, hugging Fuuka with Rise.

“We’ve lost Futaba. She’ll be working for the company her mom was,” Akechi noted, teeth clenched. He bounced his leg anxiously, watching this rag tag assembly.

“We’re supposed to be directing them,” Ren noted. Akechi bounced his legs in response. Ren sat up to present, but he was gently pulled back down by Akechi.

“No, I need to do this. Let me lead, okay?”

Akechi walked up in front of the group.

“There are three different cities with rogue operations. Sapporo, Yokohama, and Kumamoto. They will likely have unusual store fronts, the place where I was imprisoned was built under a globe store. They will move at the slightest sign of trouble, and they move fast and efficiently. The groups likely have police and politician support, as you could imagine—this tech is incredibly valuable to people who are and who desire to be in positions of authority and power. Do not contact the local police under any circumstances. We have three AI, so one AI will go to each location, as well as one Navi per city. Sorry to split you up. The AI will rescue children via Futaba’s constructs in the metaverse. All the people will split evenly and stake out the store fronts.

“We’ll take the Jets, and we’ll start the operation as soon as everyone arrives in their respective city. While the jets are traveling, Sakura san will build the constructs.” He turned to the navi girls.

“Is it possible to give everyone undetectable phone apps that track the Kirijo telecom frequency?”

“Ye-yes, but that’s not my forte,” Futaba admitted.

“It’s actually mine, I’ll have the app done in a few minutes with your help Futaba chan,” Fuuka offered. They got to work.

“Okay, timeline: They finish that app, everyone downloads it, the selected travel to their respective cities and start a steak out while Futaba builds the constructs. Use the app to pinpoint the telecom frequency, then we assault all three locations via metaverse, with the AI, and physical locations, with the persona users simultaneously.” Akechi capped his marker.

“I’m grateful to all of you for taking the time out of your lives to expose this child trafficking ring.” He gave a shallow bow.

“Fuuka, you’ll go to Sapporo. Rise, Kumamoto. Futaba will take Yokohama. Aigis, Sapporo, Genesis, Yokohama. Labrys, Kumamoto. Naoto and Mitsuru will be here with Ren and me, here overseeing operations. This side of the room, Sapporo. This side, Kumamoto, and this side stays here for Yokohama. Do you all comprehend your directives? Good,” he replied to all the nods. “While they develop the app, everyone rest up, eat, and possibly pack rations. It’s going to be a long, rough day.” Ren raised his hand.

“You, in the back.”

“What should we do with the scientists? You said no police, so what should we do with them once we find them? If we let them go they could start another division.”

“Kill them,” Akechi sighed flippantly, tossing the marker over his shoulder. Ken’s attention was piqued, he now looked steadily at Akechi. Koromaru whimpered. “Kick them into the metaverse, leave them there, let the demons have them.”

“... _Oooor_ , we actually alert local authorities and have them arrested so that they may pay for their crimes,” Naoto suggested, sweating.

“Your _faith_ in the system is disturbing.”

Naoto sighed.

“It’s not so much that as...we can’t ask the Shadow Operatives to kill people. I _know_ there is no redemption for child traffickers, and I _know_ lives and families are being ruined at their hands, and the police can be incredibly crooked and unreliable,” Shirogane knew Akechi’s mother's situation before she’d died, and the police's involvement in that, “But murder is a double edged sword. Asking the Shadow Operatives to traumatize themselves by ending lives is out of the question. We’ll have to depend on the police for arrests. It’s our only option.”

Akechi growled a sigh, then plopped back into his seat by Ren.

“ _Ffffine_. But I want a full report on _every single person_ affiliated with these operations. Every scientist, every intern, every delivery man, every truck driver, the records they keep, and _all_ of the orphans...within applicable childrens’ privacy laws. I’m depending on you and Kirijo san to make sure these criminals are charged and punished. I won’t tolerate any punishment less than the full extent of the law.”

“I promise,” Naoto agreed quickly. They remembered when The Investigation Team almost kicked a man called 'Namatame' into the TV World to kill him, their own respective unforgivable villain, nearly five years ago. They were still haunted by the vitriol that almost led their team to kill. They knew hurt people hurt people, and could only imagine what Akechi was going through right now. They absolutely knew what it was like to be that mad, and to be that hurt. It was a harrowing state of being.

Discussions on mortality and Justice simply delighted Ken Amada, he loved to see where everyone stood on it, and it was rare to see people even comfortable enough to discuss it. Smiling, he glanced at Akechi while petting Koromaru. When his and Akechi's eyes met, he let a clump of his dog’s white fur fall on the suite floor, before he gently looked back down to pet Koromaru some more. Ken's face was composed.

Akechi... understood. Ken Amada was livid, and emitted an aura of desperate chaos, but had a way to soothe himself— petting Koromaru. Amada and that dog were a team and...he had Ren. He couldn’t exactly _pet_ him, but Ren was his own personal soothing force, and they made a good team.

“Do you like airport food?” Akechi asked, standing. Ren stood too, smiling. “I want to buy touristy things?” he asked, following Akechi out of the suite.

"Let's."

Smiling, Ken leaned in to smooch the top of Koro’s head between the ears.

“You’re _such_ a good boy. I love you old man.”

**~~~~~**

Akechi watched Aigis run out of a rippled blur carrying children, then Genesis, then Labrys.

“It fucking worked,” Ren sighed. Akechi watched the screens of the rescue with a focused desperation, watching all three screens of the rescue at once.

The persona users blasted into the clinics, grabbing every scientist and child they could, securing the building, covering all the exits, then proceeded inward. They found children hiding under beds, hiding under covers, hiding in corners. Some kids ran up to them; one scientist shoved a kid into the clinic’s jump off point before Akihiko could destroy the device, Genesis ran out of the metaverse with that kid seconds later.

Akechi felt a hand slowly take his. For a moment he glanced at Ren who silently mouthed ‘breathe’. He nodded, took a breath. Ken Amada, easily the youngest Shadow Operative, swiftly and expertly subdued scientists, and had the uncanny ability to get kids to trust him quickly. Howling, Koromaru led children to safety. All kids who interacted with Ken Amada and Koromaru were persuaded to follow them out of the clinic within seconds. His conduct was by far the most impressive.

“Who... is Ken Amada?” Akechi asked Mitsuru and Naoto. Mitsuru answered.

“He’s been an invaluable teammate of mine for about eight years. Him and I have been fighting together since he was in elementary school.”

“Was his persona implanted by the Kirijo group, too?”

“He awaked naturally, though I figure you’re wondering specifically _how_ he’s affiliated with the Kirijo Group. He doesn’t mind people knowing. His mother was killed by a Kirijo Group survivor who had an artificial persona, but couldn’t control their powers without drugs. Civilian casualties. He awakened _then_ , then was scouted by our dorm mother...who was also... Kirijo Group…” She rubbed her temples, sighing. “But he grew up in our highschool dorm, as an orphan. Which honestly wasn’t much better than the Kirijo Group. He trained with us, went on life or death missions with us, suicide missions with us. He’s gone through a lot...and he’s an old soul.”

“Don’t believe in old souls,” Akechi sighed, turning his attention back to the screens. “Only children subjected to things they shouldn’t have been.”

**Dec. 23rd**

Sae met the Phantom Thieves at LeBlanc to tell them that, despite Shido's arrest and confession, despite being proven to be the top funding force of the Kirijo trafficking rings with close ties to the research, he probably wouldn't face a trial unless there was public pressure. Otherwise, Shido's inauguration was postponed instead of cancelled.

"And we're in danger while he knows the truth," Haru fretted.

"Famous researchers are spreading pro-Shido propaganda," Futaba added.

"I cannot question Shido or make him stand trial while he's being held by doctors, and...I've been removed from the case. Placed on extended leave by my superiors." Makoto's hand clenched.

Morgana suggested erasing mementos, and they all agreed to meet in the morning and steal the public's heart, relaying that to Sae.

**~~~~~**

“You look amazing as always,” Akechi’s make-up artist smiled, smoothing the detective's hair with his comb and putting the final touches of BB Cream on his face. “Do you want a warm drink before you go on?”

“I’m fine, thank you.” 

“You’re on in thirty.”

“Alright.” He looked at himself in the well lit mirror. Ren had said he was cute, and since he’d liked his face more. He admired himself for a while, then laughed, bashfully feeling very fond of Ren at the moment. ‘ _Thinking about him even now, as I’m about to do the most important interview of my career._ ’ Composing himself he ran his hands through his hair. He didn’t even really want to be there at the TV station, but Naoto had asked him to make the report since the seizure of the rogue Kirijo groups made national news. He grabbed his phone, looking at a picture of him and Ren that Ren had snapped of them after defeating the Kirijo group. 

Ren was a beaming ray of light and Akechi looked like a disgruntled salt monster from the Dead Sea, which seemed to be their dynamic, but he was happy to have the commemorative picture. Ken Amada photo-bombed them too, jumping into their photo next to him last second, a cheerful blur throwing up two victory signs at their collective triumph. Even though he himself looked like shell of a person by the end of that day, it was still his lock screen. He had to laugh every time he looked at it.

He texted Ren.

‘ _Got twenty minutes for Tetris? I'm on in 30._ ’ 

‘ _Gimme two minutes_!’

"Well, let's go to Mementos tomorrow," Ren instructed, grinning, just having received the gaming invite from Akechi. The Phantom Thieves agreed. "Safe trips home, everyone. Also Akechi says he'll be on TV in 30, we should probably tune in."

Everyone who had TVs agreed, hugged each other, and left LeBlanc to get some rest for the mission tomorrow. Ren cracked open an instant noodle bowl, poured in piping hot water, then sat on the café counter to open his 3DS to play.

**~~~~~**

The make up artist walked past Akechi’s dressing room, hearing him chuckle gently to the nostalgic 8-bit tune of Tetris. They’d never, ever, ever heard Akechi’s laugh. Not a sincere one like this, anyway. They continued on, happy for him.

“The operation saved forty-three kids in three cities, and we arrested around twenty seven criminals affiliated with the trafficking,” he recalled. He watched the audience murmur among themselves. They put him under a spotlight, it took a moment for his eyes to adjust. It was hot, he loved wearing suits and especially his school uniform, but it just got uncomfortably hot after a while.

“You’re truly amazing Akechi, is there anything you can’t do?”

“Haha! I’m only human, sir. And it was a team effort. I wouldn’t have been able to manage this without the community, the Kirijo Group and its affiliates, and the police.” Praising the police and the Kirijo Group tasted like vinegar in his mouth, but he kept his cool exterior. He was tired. Being a celebrity had its perks, but he was growing weary with all of the exposure. Some girls screamed for him, he waved, smiling, inwardly growing more tired.

“Can you tell us what this operation meant to you?” The show host asked.

Akechi thought. And thought.

“Akechi kun?”

“It’s important to me for many reasons,” he sighed. “Masayoshi Shido is my father.”

People in the audience shrieked, people stood out of their seats, foldable chairs clattered, camera men and key grips quickly ran to fetch more cameras at the silent direction of the director. 

“Masayoshi Shido?! The politician!?”

“The same,” Akechi nodded. “He knew about me, but never bothered to enter my life, I was a proper bastard, a mere scandal, and a burden to his career. When my mom died he was alerted and agreed to custody, since he was on my birth certificate, and when my fate was in his hands, he sold me to a rogue division of the Kirijo Group.”

The audience was shrieking, losing it’s minds. The TV show host looked hesitantly at the producer who enthusiastically motioned for him to keep going with the interview. Cameras zoomed in to record all angles of Akechi. Exactly what he wanted.

“So you’re saying Masayoshi Shido sold you into— a human trafficking ring!?”

“It’s true,” Akechi nodded, leg bouncing. “He then used his connections to take his name off of my birth certificate. I spent nearly a year there as a younger child, but, against all odds, I escaped. The friends I tried to take with me didn’t make it. So to answer your question, this was one of the reasons I _became_ a detective, and I was lucky enough to have been trained by the renound Naoto Shirogane. But taking down that rogue division was incredibly important to me, personally. Top priority. I wouldn’t wish what happened to me on anyone, kids don’t deserve that.”

“Of course not! I can’t believe it!”

“I also ask for the public's support with Shido. He's a crooked man, and he confessed, I ask for the public to support his imprisonment!" He stood, facing the gasping audience and all the cameras, speaking with a fierce resolve. "He will only face a trial if there's pressure from the public! So I beg you to call your representatives. I also ask for the public to bring any grievances they have against Shido to the police. I know it's frightening to cross such a powerful politician, but I vow to stand by you, believe you, and protect you. I'm scared too, but I also recognize it'll have to be a community effort to get him to face consequences. Police are standing by to hear you out." The audience was still freaking out, angry shouts from Shido supporters accosted Akechi and the film crew. Akechi knew the owner of this TV station was a Shido affiliate, but also he knew his interviews produced phenomenal ratings. He wondered how much he could get away with. "Also shout out to the Phantom Thieves. Thank you.” Akechi bowed deeply toward the cameras.

Ren, watching tv at LeBlanc, spit out his coffee. The live studio audience were going wild with jeers, cheers, tears.

After sitting back down, Akechi explained. “I remain one of their harshest critics, and I still want them to pay for their crimes and their unethical methods, but they forwarded me the information I needed to take down this trafficking ring. They could have chosen anyone, but they chose me." Akechi glanced at the camera, knowingly. "Their MO is 'stealing the heart' of one person at a time, maybe they didn't have the resources to take down thirty people in three locations, perhaps? And also there's the matter of the well-being of the orphaned children once rescued. The Phantom Thieves made a good choice to trust the police with this mission, we're better equipped to handle this." The TV host motioned for Akechi to continue. "They probably gained that incriminating information illegally, like they're want to do, but I had to act anyway. For me, and for the kids. I don’t believe it was to get me to go easier on them, I truly believe they were rightfully concerned and entrusted me to take down the rogue divisions. I appreciate their trust, and I’m happy I was able to...rise to their expectations.” He smiled coolly.

“Wow, Akechi san. Is there anything else we want to say to the audience? The world is watching.”

“Are we live?”

“Yes we are.”

Akechi turned to the closest camera, smirking. Ren watched him intently from the LeBlanc counter. Akechi lifted his arm, fiddled with his glove a bit, and lowered his jacket sleeve to reveal a thin, silver gay pride bracelet. 

As soon as the rainbow beads glinted on the TV screen, the signal cut—static—went to picture of a cute mascot character apologizing for technical difficulties.

Ren gawked at the TV screen—that just happened.

The Phantom Thieves chat was blowing up, his phone nearly buzzed out of his pocket.

Ann and Futaba typed in a bunch of capital As, Yusuke couldn’t figure out what was going on, Ryuji’s texts were aggressively supportive—

‘ _I’m still on this chat, remember_ ’ Akechi chimed in, all of the thieves turned their attention to him and messaged him until it was clear that he’d muted the chat.

Before Ren was finished with his noodles, Akechi called him.

"Hello~?" Akechi could hear the smile in Ren's voice. Akechi's heart danced in his chest hearing it.

"How far did I get before they took me off the air?"

"The bracelet. You were so cool, Goro kun."

"I've been planning that one," he admitted. It sounded like Akechi was moving around busily, his voice echoed intermittently, he heard the opening and closing of doors, rustling. He must've still been at the TV station. "You see my _original_ plan was to destroy Shido at the peak of his career, but since that flopped, I wanted to try this. At the police station I heard Nijima San was forced to go on leave, and that the inauguration was postponed, and despite Shido's confessions he wouldn't stand trial unless there was public pressure. So I got to tell my truth, tried to mobilize to the public, and tried to drag Shido into a scandal or two. An 'absent, evil, corrupt father with a gay son' depiction would typically **hurt** a politician, but." He paused. "Something is off."

"Like what?"

"Just that. I _just said_ Shido sold me into slavery on live television and support for Shido and I have gone **up**. Which…" he took a moment to breathe, Ren would want him to. "Is mostly... a feeling. A bad one. I don't have concrete evidence of course, but at least at the TV station Shido's supporters...are unwavering. As are mine, which makes no sense. And as for the PT— I just checked out the Phansite poll. It's lower than before my interview segment. I _just_ said on live TV that the PT helped me with a case. How could you all have less support than before my interview? I feel...I know this is me we're talking about here, but I'm feeling crazy. Am I imagining this? I feel... _gaslit_."

"Goro…"

"Eh, sorry to prattle on." Ren heard clicking and buzzing that sounded like it was coming from a bike. "Maybe I'm just imagining it. Anyway, I've got to get home."

"Text me when you get there," Ren asked. "Also, we're going to Mementos tomorrow at around 3:30 PM. We aim to erase the Metaverse entirely. Bring your A game."

"That's the only game I have," Ren could hear Akechi smiling as he said that. "So you aim to...steal the mass public's heart and destroy the metaverse, hm. I wouldn't miss that for the world. I'll be there. Bye, Ren."

Akechi hung up.

As he biked he was deep in thought. Things weren't adding up. 

At home, he took off his helmet, his cycling apparel, texted Ren he was home, took a quick cool shower, then sat at his desk where his computer and Ren's Christmas gift was. He had youtube open to try to learn how to wrap a gift properly, he'd never done it before, but on his computer screen was a few hundred new email notifications that had popped up over the video.

He exhaled through his teeth as he closed the notifications one-by-one.

Slurs.  
Please review our queer bar.

Amazing interview.

I can’t be your fan anymore.

Can’t believe we let you review our establishment.

Slurs.

Thanks for rescuing the kids.

You saved my life.

You’re being removed from this case.

Delete, delete, delete, he didn’t give a fuck.

After he deleted the notifications, he finally unburied the youtube video. A sweet, encouraging little old lady tenderly instructed him how to perfectly wrap a gift, and he did so with a big smile, thinking about Ren, spending an evening alone with him. If they survived erasing mementos he was going to be sweaty and gross before his date, but...so would Ren.

A few days ago he’d privately messaged Futaba asking her if there was anything Ren was hoping for or needed. Since being asked to Christmas, he’d run around Kichijoji looking for anything that stuck out to him, and nothing did. In his anxiousness he turned to the person who arguably knew him the best.

“Ren doesn’t really need anything,” Futaba mused, happy to help. “He never talks about wanting anything either, but you know what he likes? Souvenirs and gifts—like ones he gets from friends, things that mean something to the people who gift them, he displays _all_ of it. I’d just suggest getting him something _you’d_ like.”

And just then he knew _exactly_ what to get Ren.

He’d be all his for an evening, he’d get to see his face when he opened his gift. He desperately hoped Ren would love his gift. He thought about maybe getting a real kiss. He planned to make the first move, but would be just as happy if Ren beat him to it. He wondered what he should wear, he imagined what Ren would wear. Should he reserve a restaurant? Stay in? Order a cake? Maybe they'd get to sleep in the same bed again? Sleeping with Ren on top of him granted him the best sleep of his life, and he hadn't had sleep as good since. Maybe it was the weight? No matter what it was, he was eager to do it again. Akechi put a record in his record player to play quietly, one of the newest additions to his vinyl collection, a foreign neo-soul singer named Angie Stone.

He folded the wrapping paper with care, tied it up carefully, cut triangles into the ribbon tails.

He wrote Ren’s name on the tag, attached it. It was...imperfect, but incredible for his first try. His first gift.

‘ _I’m excited about tomorrow_ ,’ He texted Ren who messaged back ‘ _I’m going to miss being a Phantom Thief, but this is for the best._ ’

Akechi looked down at his phone unamused. Uh, their _date_? 

Did he forget? Surely not?

 _Maybe my priorities are skewed_ , Akechi sighed, closing his laptop. Erasing Mementos _was_ technically more important than a Christmas eve date. Technically, but.

**Dec. 24th**

Akechi met the Phantom Thieves in the subway, unable to completely erase the disappointment from his face. It was already nearly 4pm, and they hadn’t even headed into Mementos yet.

Ren smiled brightly at Akechi, then recoiled, quickly getting that he was in another funk.

“Is...everything okay?”

“It’s fine. Let’s head in.” Ren sighed, nodding, pressing the app.

“ **The door to the Mementos depths has been opened** ,” They all read on the nav.

“Skull, Mona, Crow,” Joker asked for his party. Akechi nodded, which was far less enthusiastic about fighting than he’d ever been.

“Uhm, do you want to fight today, Crow?”

“Not really.”

“Oh. Panther, then. Sorry for assuming.”

Mona ran in, eager to get to the bottom. Akechi did as he usually did, hung back, watching everyone. Some of the Thieves looked hesitant about Mona’s zeal, he was too.

Mementos got creepier. There were themes of imprisonment— one way doors, iron bars, ball and chains, Akechi was anxious, but he kept to himself. He noticed the Christian mythology theme, he wasn’t positive what to make of it.  
While they ran around, murmurs of the imprisoned started to get to him.

‘I feel so safe here.’

'This is true freedom.'

‘I hate choices.’

‘Isn’t this nice?’ his heart started to race, he felt the need to hyperventilate, but he tried his best to keep it together. 

As the thieves fought, he simply focused on breathing. His palms started to sweat.

The thieves did puzzles, he breathed. He got light headed. His heart was racing.

'Join us...'

'This is so nice. I feel so free.'

'I never want to leave.'

At some point when Joker was running around a puzzle, Noir pulled Crow behind a pillar, out of sight of the others.

At first he was pissed off, then self conscious that she was going to accuse him of the murder that he did, but her eyes were soft. They stood there in silence until the rush of emotions fell of off him and he was ready to talk. Her relaxed aura comforted him, he didn’t sense malice, or even blame.

“I wanted to show you two things I’ve learned,” she cooed soothingly. Crows eyebrows were furrowed, but he nodded.

“First,” she turned her back to the wall and leaned on it, feet a few feet away from the wall, but back in complete contact with the wall. “This is called grounding,” she noted. “Lift your chin a little. Crow tried it. It was nice, but his chest was on fire. “Next,” She took her hands, placed one flat on her chest, then placed the other flat on her stomach. “Push hard, breathe in for six, out for six.”

Crow did. They breathed together for a while. Her exhales and aura were inexplicably soothing. Crow was trembling at first, but he calmed. Those people were wrong. Captivity wasn’t easy. Captivity wasn’t nice. They were distorted, all of them, and that’s why they were there. They were gonna fix it. When Crow opened his eyes, Noir scrunched her nose at him cutely, then left to join the others. Crow sat for a moment, thinking about how he had Haru pegged wrong.

“Crow?” Joker asked, a tinge of worry in his voice.

“Over here, just resting.” Crow leaned over to look at everyone. “Sorry to worry you.” Joker looked relieved. “Let’s move.”

They found the Prison of Regression, found the palace owners, found Shido. Crow stood behind everybody else, arms crossed and looking away. He’d already nearly had a panic attack, he didn’t want any of this, he didn’t want to be anywhere near Shido, but Shido walked to the bars and reached for him, beckoned him specifically. Akechi shook his head.

“Nope.”

“I’m just trying to help you,” Shido sighed. “I know you. You’ve been burdened with hard decisions your entire life. I’ve been a terrible father, so I was hoping I could offer you at least this freedom. No decisions here. It’s bliss.”

“I’ve had more than my fair share of ‘bliss’, Shido.” Crow turned to Joker. “We should go. I can’t take this much longer.” Joker nodded.

They continued on.

They found the Holy Grail.

It started speaking. The vibrations of its deep voice shook Akechi to his core. His heart started to race again. There was no doubt about it, this was the same voice he’d encountered years ago escaping the Kirijo Group. This was the god whose hand he’d fallen into, the one who gifted him a persona, the one who said ‘I like you.’ His breathing shuttered. It called them fools. Did that Holy Grail have the power to take Loki?

It called itself the granter of dreams.

It said the Prison of Regression was the will of the people.

Was that true?

The masses started yelling at them, begging them to stop. Stop. Don't touch the Holy Grail.

They chanted for them to get out. The Holy Grail shimmered in defiance.

He held his head, mind racing. 

The ground started to vanish.

They woke up in Shibuya, and all stood looking at their civilian clothing.

They were barely able to get their bearings before it started to rain pink, and bone towers erupted from the ground as tall as skyscrapers around them. They were all disoriented watching people go about their daily lives as the world around them grew monstrous.

Then the phantom thieves started to collapse.

Akechi watched in horror as they were yanked to the concrete.

“Ren?” he asked, drawing near to him.

“Akechi—?” Ren was reduced to his knees, physically struggling like the rest. Akechi knelt near him, taking Ren’s hand, but it disappeared out of it.

“Wha—?” Ren, and all of the phantom thieves, were fading. “No!” Akechi tried to grab onto Ren, but his arms went straight through like air. “No, no no no, Ren don’t...leave me…”

The voice of that god boomed above them. Laughter.

Ren was the last to disappear, his fingers lightly traced Akechi’s jaw before he faded like the rest.

Akechi stood alone again, unable to stop his tears. Anger, frustration, fear.

“Woooooooo!” an aggressively enthusiastic voice howled at him, startling him.

“Akechi we love yoooou!”

“Akechiiii! Yeah! Down with the Phantom Thieves!”

“Akechi and Shido! Akechi and Shido!” The people in Shibuya crowded around Akechi cheering for him, clapping as they chanted. He tried to move away, but supporters ran over to corner him on all sides. A few people, more people, then it was deafening. He had to cover his ears. It seemed all of Shibuya was cheering, shrieking their support. “Akechi and Shido! Akechi and Shido! Akechi and Shido!”

“I don’t support him! At all! He tried to kill me!” The sea of people didn’t listen. Their cheers got louder. “I don’t...please support the...I support the Phantom Thieves…” Their cheers got louder. Akechi fell to his knees, heart broken and disoriented. The crowd’s jubilant support started to break him, the god’s laughter boomed through him. The Phantom Thieves were gone, Ren was gone. It was him, everyone in Shibuya, and Mementos. Why didn’t he disappear, too? He would have rather failed with the Thieves than to have survived alone.

“GOROOOOOO!” Joker screamed, tearing through the velvet room prisons for a third time. “GOROOOOOOOOO!” His raspy, broken voice echoed throughout the prison walkways. Noir and Queen hugged each other trying to fight their tears. After his fourth desperate lap, Skull tackled Joker. He was the only one who could catch him.

“He’s not here!” Skull insisted, hugging Joker tight in place so he couldn’t get up again.

“NO!” Tears streamed down his face. He tried to punch Skull off but Skull hugged him tighter, followed by Noir, then Queen, Oracle, Fox, everyone.

“We’re so sorry, Joker.”

“He’s not here, Joker.”

“ _No_ ,” his voice cracked.

Lavenza walked up, regarding the pile of Thieves hugging their leader on the ground.

“Where’s Goro,” Ren sobbed.

“Not here,” she assured. “But he’s alive. Come, we have much to discuss.”

“A god...pitted me against Akechi?”

“Yes,” Lavenza nodded. “Two tricksters. If Akechi—the one who incited the mass’ distortion— were to have won, the world would have been destroyed and remade. And you were chosen to stop him.”

“If you were to win, the world was to stay as is, those were the conditions of the game,” Morgana continued, memories back. “At least—that’s what should have happened— but that malevolent being knew humans were too lazy for revolution, since he was made from their desire. He then approached Joker because of his great potential, then trained him, but tried to lead him down the path of despair with masses who rejected him. The evil god rigged the outcome.”

“And you don’t exist because those masses don’t believe you exist, because of the distortion,” Lavenza finished. “But there’s hope. Because you know his identity, you have the chance to thwart him and earn your existence back.”

Joker thought of Akechi. 

This jazz loving high school senior. He loved strawberries, sushi, and working way too hard. A terrible cook and lover of low impact sports. Akechi was well meaning, even sweet at times. He was a high school _boy_ , not the harbinger of the apocalypse.

He was...tired of seeing Akechi get thrown under the bus. He was livid for him. Nearly everyone Akechi had crossed paths with had had it out for him. Family, civilians, the government, _gods_. He now understood why it was hard for him to open up.

He was sick and tired of watching Akechi get manipulated. He was going to crush this god himself. 

For Akechi’s sake, for his, and for his friends. 

They ascended back to Shibuya, and they were in their Phantom Thief clothes.

“Akechi! Shido! Akechi! Shido! Akechi! Shido!” There was a sea of people at Shibuya station, centered in one spot.

“Wait for me,” He asked his friends, then ran as fast as he could to the crowd. 

He swam through the people, pushing, shoving, until he got to the center. “Goro!”

Akechi turned toward his voice immediately, with an astonished, tear stained face.

“J-Joker? Is that really you?” A red glove pierced through the crowd of people.

“Himemiya!” He shouted, and laughing with relief, Akechi latched onto his arm.

Joker pulled him through the crowd of people and into a hug.

Akechi gripped Joker’s clothes, it felt like he wasn’t going to let him go.

“Thought you’d seen the last of me?” Joker chuckled. Akechi just hugged him tighter. “Hey...let’s get you out of here.” He led Akechi away from the chanting crowd.

Akechi was barely able to compose himself by the time he rejoined the phantom thieves. Akechi, in his sweater vest and slacks, looked at everyone else in uniform. It broke his heart. He wanted to think he was cut from the same cloth as them, but he wasn’t. This was proof.

Joker explained the situation with the malevolent god, which hurt Akechi even more. Was he supposed to die in digital demon hell with Gannet and Condor? Was saving his life dedicating it to...whatever this fucked up game was? Him, a lowly orphan, a former slave, a friendless kid who felt like nothing, had the power of destruction. He was a god’s pawn to enable Shido to destroy the world. He existed to be stopped. He always wanted to think he was carving his own path, but he was playing into everybody’s hands, simultaneously. And alas, if he did have some sort of destiny, he was defeated. Joker was the victor for sure.

Goro looked as gloomy as ever.

“We didn’t mean to upset you,” Panther tried to comfort.

“No, it’s fine.” All joy had left his body, he felt heavy, hopeless.

Joker thought of something he could do. This felt like his chance to pep talk Goro out of the velvet room prison. This was it.

“Goro Akechi!” Joker demanded, the interjection was so forceful that Akechi’s shoulders jumped in surprise. Joker stood behind Akechi and wrapped his arms around him, resting his chin on Akechi’s shoulder. In his heels he was just a little taller than Goro. “Don’t tell me you’re gonna let a _god_ tell you what to do.” That made Akechi chuckle.

“It’s not even that. I’m cursed…and tired..." he was flustered at the PDA, but being held was nice nonetheless. It made him feel special.

Joker turned Goro toward a dismal, pink bone mementos mountain. Angel shadows were visibly pacing back and forth up there, and where the path met the sky the sky darkened.

"Akechi and Shido! Akechi and Shido!"

"Save us! Steer this country!"

"You were always right Akechi san!"

"Ignore them," Joker sighed, pointing to the mountain. "See that ramp? The god that did this, all of this, ran up there. The Igor who tortured you in your velvet room, the one who separated the twins, the Holy Grail that kicked our asses and made us disappear, the one who warped society, the one who pit us against each other, the very same one whose hand you fell into as a child. I'm going to crush him under my boot. You in?" Akechi chuckled.

"Oho. I'm _in_ . Even if I have to do it in a sweater vest with my bare _hands_ , I'm in."

They both laughed, and the will of rebellion returned to Akechi. His clothes blackened once more, his helmet returned. Crow took one last second to relish being in Joker's arms before he stepped away.

"Let's make quick work of that bastard."

**~~~~~**

Yaldabaoth fell, and Mementos glittered and drifted away like a bad dream. Their clothes changed, Mona did some magical sage shit and drifted away.

It started snowing.

“I knew it,” Akechi smiled, looking up at the sky, catching a snowflake in his hand.

“A white Christmas!” Ann exclaimed. Joker’s eyes widened in realization. Between finals, his probation, Shido, Yaldabaoth, and Morgana— he’d completely forgotten. 

“Oh no—” he facepalmed. “Is that why you were in a mood?”

“Don’t worry about it, Ren.”

“I’m worried about Sojiro, I’m gonna head home. Have fun, you two.” Futaba left.

“Yeah, I should head home.” Everyone separated, except for Ren and Goro who took each other’s hands.

“I’m so fucking sorry—” 

“Don’t be! I’m still trying to decide if this was the best or worst first date in the history of mankind,” he laughed hard, having to pause walking. “Nevertheless, you set the bar really high.” Akechi’s laugh made Ren’s heart rate quicken. “I’ll never again have a first date where I can take down the god who spearheaded my childhood trauma. Other people go to juice bars on their first date, but us? We reform society. I think I’m ruined for first dates forever.”

“Then don’t go on anymore first dates,” Ren blushed, laughing, hugging onto Goro’s arm.

“Oh— your gift is at my apartment,” Akechi noted. 

“Yours is at mine.”

“Looks like we have a lot of ground to cover. My bike is locked by the station—”

They turned to see Sae Nijima, who looked astonished to see them holding hands.

“Akechi...the leader of the _Phantom Thieves,_ Akechi?” Speechless, he averted his eyes.

“Amamiya kun, blink if you need help,” she laughed. Embarrassed, Ren averted his eyes, unblinkingly.

“I can explain—”

“There’s no need,” she chuckled. “If you’re not blinking it’s none of my business.”

Ren and Goro looked at each other. Sae sighed, growing tired of being the bearer of bad news, but also she couldn’t betray them by letting Shido’s trial slip through her hands again. 

“Both of you boys, nice work on the child trafficking ring. Never in my life have I seen anything like it. To think highschoolers could take down a ring police couldn’t track. And you, good on your interview. You’re the talk of the town.” Akechi nodded gently. So _this_ is what had gotten into him, coming out on live TV. Ren. She never saw that coming. “More reports have trickled in after that interview you did and, as we promised, placed some in witness protection.”

“Thank you, Nijima san.”

“So. We have a trial date for Shido and... I think you already know what I’m going to ask. One of you, your testimony will be necessary in order to prove Shido guilty, but you will be arrested. I request one of you to turn yourself into the police. Time is of the essence.” Akechi felt Ren’s hands tighten around his arm. He already knew.

“I’ll go. It’s only fair. I agree to testify against Shido and his crimes.”

“Thank you, Akechi.” Sae sighed with relief. Ren shook his head.

“No.”

“Ren…” Akechi sighed. “It’s my choice. I’m in part responsible for these crimes, and it’s personal principal that I repay my debts.”

“I’m sorry Amamiya kun. I’ll take him in myself.” Ren didn't let him go.

"This isn't _fair_."

"It isn't, I acknowledge that," Sae shook her head. "But prosecuting Shido is bigger than us. You know that."

"In regards to the Kirijo group too," Akechi added. "He was funding and using that research to conquer politics. I need to know all his contacts to properly ensure there are no more rogue start ups."

At this point Ren was just feeling selfish. He was mad. But he also knew he needed to support his friends. He couldn’t get arrested, it would be too dangerous for the Phantom Thieves and Sojiro.

"It can't wait till tomorrow?" He asked weakly.

"Well..." Sae trailed off, but Akechi shook his head.

"Ren," Akechi took Ren into a hug. "It's okay." Ren sniffed, burying his head into Akechi’s shoulder. Akechi wasn’t quite sure how to console him, Ren, his favorite person in the world, sobbing over him in the middle of Shibuya station.

“There...there?” 

“Goddamn it Goro did you just ‘there there’ me?” Ren stood back up, taking off his glasses to rub his eyes. “I’m...sorry for making a scene.” Sniffing, he slid his glasses back on, unable to look at Goro.

“Hey, Ren. Please take these.” Akechi placed his key ring in Ren’s hands. 

> you obtained Akechi’s keys.

“Your gift is on my desk. If…” his eyes lowered. “...you still want it…” Ren pocketed his keys, nodding. “The other two keys are...the small one is for my bike lock. I’d personally love it if you were to take it. The last is for my filing cabinet, so don’t worry about it.”

“Thank you. You’re the best rival a guy could ask for,” Ren offered one last tearful smile. That cheesy sentiment made Akechi beam with pride.

“I’m honored. Though, we killed a god together so we wouldn’t _have_ to be. Now I simply _chose_ to be your rival, and companion.” He looked at Sae, nodding for her to lead the way. “Goodbye Ren.” 

The two left, and Ren pulled out Akechi’s keys to look at them again, the tiny knit strawberry soft in his palm.

Sae looked at Akechi, hunched and turned away from her in her passenger’s seat, forehead resting against the door so he wouldn’t be seen by passing cars.

“You know...I would have let you stay for Christmas.”

“I know,” his voice cracked. She heard a sniff.

“You should have stayed.”

“No.”

“Can I ask why? I can turn around—”

“No, Sae san. It’ll just hurt more. This is already near unbearable, I couldn’t imagine leaving _after_ Christmas. Just rip the damn band-aid off.”

“I understand your reasoning, but I disagree with it.”

“Besides, Sae. If you hurt someone, they’ll never forget you.”

“Christ, Akechi,” she sighed. “Be that as it may, I think you had that covered in November. That’s not why you’re leaving. I _saw_ that smile on your face when you were walking with him tonight. I have _ne-ver_ seen you smile like that. You don’t have to tell me the truth if you don’t want to, but it’s obvious you’re hiding behind a cruel exterior. You’re paper thin, kid.” He chuckled.

“ _I guess I am_. I’m terrified to be in this deep. I’m worried I love him more than anything, and he’ll leave. Which would be easier than what he would actually do—stay. Make me happy. Can’t have that.” He turned to face forward, his face panicked, he was gripping his hair. “Fuck Sae, am I a good person?!” He closed his eyes, tears falling down his face. “I can’t...let myself be happy can I!? I’m trying, I really am... It feels _wrong_ . Haha, Ren was right about me. He always is. I hate that. I work toward something and once I have it I destroy it. Just... _poof_.”

Grimacing Sae made a mental note to get the kid a psych eval ASAP. 

**~~~~~**

Akechi’s bike was really nice, a blue and white cycling hobbyist bike.

Ren picked up Akechi's helmet and sniffed it, poked the cushions. It definitely smelled like him, and it wasn't too sweaty. He carried it into the subway bound for Kichijoji.

He slid Akechi's key into his apartment's front door to get in, flipped on the lights.

Ren imagined they'd be here together, cuddled up on the bed exchanging gifts. Akechi would get flustered, say something snarky, he'd combat it. He imagined they'd eat in since there was no space at restaurants, and he was locally popular anyway.

Ren smiled wryly. He took the gift and flopped on Akechi's bed.

"Merry Christmas to me," Ren sighed, pulling the ribbon. The gift was beautifully wrapped. Of course he'd be good at wrapping gifts.

Ren was confused at what he saw. He pulled out shoes and a heavy drawstring bag. Upon opening it, he realized what was going on. Chalk. Akechi wanted to go bouldering together, and had bought him everything he needed to get started. He wanted to spend more time with him.

Ren closed his eyes, trying to swallow his tears. This was so sweet and thoughtful. 

He decided to call Akechi.

Sae and Akechi were walking toward the police station from the parking lot, Akechi paused to pull out his buzzing phone. Ren. His still, smiling face lit up Akechi's screen, illuminating him and Sae in the dark of the evening. They both watched it ring until it went to voicemail.

"That's a nice contact picture," Sae noted.

"It's one of my favorites," Akechi replied weakly, handing Sae his phone. "Won't need this where I'm going."

"Akechi…" Ren spoke into the silence of the voicemail. "I got your bike. I got your gift. I love it! Thank you so much…" He sniffed. "It's perfect, the shoes fit. You're so kind...and I um. I wish I could give you your gift. I...I'm gonna miss you. But I bet you knew that." He sniffed, wiping his eyes. "I'm here in your house, um. I think I'm gonna sleep here one last time. I'm exhausted. Morgana's gone... I...I feel like maybe being alone here will be better than being alone at the café on Christmas...I guess I'm rambling because I'm hoping you'll pick up…" he paused for a while. "I guess not, but...thank you, Goro kun, for turning yourself in. I'll never forget you. I'll try to write and visit. I'll be gone to my home city in March, though so…maybe not after that. Please, let's not lose contact, I care about you, and merry Christmas." Ren hung up.

Sae watched the voice message icon pop up as Akechi was being processed.

"He left a voicemail," Sae called to Akechi. "Sure you don't wanna listen?"

A disheveled, broken mess, Akechi shook his head.

Sae plopped his phone into his possessions box.

**Dec 26th**

After school Naoto Shirogane walked into LeBlanc and sat at the counter, in front of Ren.

"Hello," they said in a way that let Ren know this wasn't a social call. "I heard the curry here is spectacular."

"Right away." Ren got to work. "It couples well with coffee, if you're interested."

"Sure! House blend."

When Ren served them he had a look of desperation.

"I heard you had Goro Akechi's keys. I've been tasked with putting his things in storage; may I have them?"

"Oh...sure." He took the keys from his pocket and twisted off the bike's lock key and the strawberry key chain, and handed the house key and filing cabinet key to Naoto.

"Greatly appreciated." Naoto sipped the coffee slowly, eyes closed, savoring it. 

"Can I ask a favor?"

"Depends. Tell me what it is, first."

"Can you give him a Christmas gift from me?" Ren clasped his hands together pleadingly. Naoto winced, that was clearly somehow a lot to ask.

"Well... I can try. I don't know _where_ he is per se, buuut I know who does. If there was ever a time to violate HIPPA code, it's for heroic queer sweethearts on Christmas. Just this once, though."

"Just this once."

"Bring me the gift." Ren did, plopped a medium sized box in front of Naoto, who smiled. "Again, no promises. I'll try to return the box to you if I can't get to him."

"Thank you Shirogane san."

**Dec 28th**

Akechi was resting in his clinic bed reading when he heard an unusual murmur and rustling from the clinic lobby. Gasps and giggles, hushed talking, more rustling. He bookmarked his book and pushed his weighted blanket aside to sit up and see if he could try to eavesdrop on the commotion. 

There was a quiet knock on his door.

"You may enter," he said, and one of the clinic nurses came in with a smile and a medium sized box that had been opened and rifled through.

"Akechi kun, you seem to have received a Christmas gift."

"...Is...that so?" On the outside he was cool, but his heart started to race. 

"Yes, from a ‘Ren Amamiya’. Would you like it?"

"Yes please." She set the gift on Akechi's desk. "We had to open it, of course, make sure the gift was safe and met our possessions code. You understand, correct?"

"I do."

"Everything in it was deemed acceptable for you to use in common areas with supervision. Merry Christmas Akechi kun."

She was about to leave, but Akechi stood, adjusting his _samue_ , asking her for one last thing.

"Wait—who brought the gift?"

"Nijima san," she replied. 

"Was she alone?"

"She was alone." 

He did the breathing exercise Haru taught him. He had no idea if he was doing it right, but it helped. Sometimes. He made a mental note to show it to his therapist.

When he was ready he peeked inside the box. His heart melted, but it took him a while to think of why Ren would get him this... then he remembered.

When in a frenzy, he'd showed Ren a lined notebook of palaces he'd found, and he'd doodled some of the cognitive distortions. He might have even told Ren that he spray painted the Phantom Thieves and their logo, in the subway, maybe even admitted he designed a Phantom Thief calling card replica for the Shujin Academy principal, but he didn't remember, he was pretty sure he was going to take those secrets to his grave. But Ren had thought the doodles in that journal was worth getting him a sumi brush set, india ink, ink pens, a pencil set, a case of copic markers, a traveler's watercolor set, and a hardcover sketchbook with paper thick enough to handle these mediums.

For a moment he was irked, this must've cost a small fortune, but then he simply felt loved. This was the most thoughtful gift he'd ever received. He loved the gift so much he almost didn't want to use it. Almost.

Chest trembling, he followed the clinician into the lobby to sit down with his art supplies and test them out. He started with the sumi brush and india ink; the way the brush glid on the paper, the quality of the ink was thrilling, it was the blackest ink he'd ever seen. The smell was soothing. He wrote 'the privilege of individuality' in calligraphy far better than the maid did on that omelette. He laughed.

He took his sketchbook outside, water colored the landscape, the surrounding hills, the perfect monk kept zen garden in the side yard, he drew and water colored the nurse, he drew and water colored his dinner and his dishes. He signed and dated his pictures. He impressed himself; he knew he had an eye for art and fashion, but he'd never really had the bandwidth to think about fostering those skills in a meaningful way. 

He'd doodle, write notes, write some of his therapist's hard hitting quotes. After a while he looked at everything differently, everyday objects became shapes, values, colors, lighting, perspective, he began to doodle and appreciate bugs not just for their role in society, but for the way they moved, their holographic eyes and exoskeletons, their patterns. 

After a while it was easy to become and remain inspired. He asked some of the clinic workers to pose for him, or for them to give him photos of their pets for him to draw, and they all supported his artistic whims. They brought him books on traditional art and he devoured each one. He designed logos, he designed clothing. The clinic bought him another sketchbook when they noticed him on his last pages.

The rehabilitation clinic workers were thrilled watching Akechi thrive with his new art supplies.

Akechi saved bread from his dinners to tear up and feed to the birds, wanting to get them close enough to watercolor and draw. Songbirds, colorful birds, and crows came to eat. At first he shooed the crows away, they were aggressive and boring to draw, but after a while he felt terrible about it. After speaking to his therapist, he realized he'd been treating crows the same way society treated him. They were natural geniuses, and deserved more respect. They were not 'more aggressive' than other birds, he was just holding crows to a different standard, because of their rough exterior. They had to be tougher, because of the way they were treated. Akechi understood.

He practiced loving the crows, growing an appreciation for their sleek elegance and rough caws. It seemed like they were becoming his friends, Akechi named them, fed them first, sat with them, let them perch on his shoulder and sketchbook. The clinic workers watched through windows as Akechi went outside everyday to be with them, humming and letting them tug at his hair, hop around him leisurely as he drew. Among themselves they debated if he was some sort of witch or forest spirit. When he went outside a murder of crows lifted from surrounding trees and landed on and near him, and Akechi hummed unbothered, feeding the creatures, lovingly.

The crows started bringing Akechi gifts. At first he thought it was a fluke that he'd found a shiny button in the garden, but he continued to find shiny trinkets. An earring, a metal spring, a screw, a bone, a bottle cap, beads, a paperclip. Akechi was nearly reduced to tears every time he found a crow gift. Early in the morning before breakfast he'd run out to the zen garden for his daily treasure hunt, looking for shiny trinkets for his collection. The clinic workers brought him mason jars to keep his shiny junk in, since it made him happy. He'd show his treasures off during dinner in the clinic to the delight of other patients and clinic workers. What a strange, delightful boy he was. Resident artist, friend of the crows, a treasure hunter of sorts, a hard worker who always volunteered for chores, the boy who hummed jazz, the boy who had the power to ruin movie night by spoiling endings to movies he'd never even seen, but chose not to. 

His hums turned to singing eventually. He sang when he did chores, when he drew, when he showered. His singing was quiet, but delightful. He sang to his birds as they ate.

"𝅘𝅥People come and they go," he sighed, thinking of society. He thought of how small his problems were now with distance and a fresh perspective. "Some people may stay with you though…" he thought of Ren, wondered what he was up to, hoping he was well. He wondered if Ren thought of him, he wondered if Ren thought of him fondly, or if he was a painful memory. "I am all alone tonight... and I... kept on asking myself questions…" If Ren had moved on, if he wanted nothing to do with him anymore, that'd be okay. He was happy they'd crossed paths. He was honored to have been someone Ren had loved, if only for a month. He knew they'd always be connected in some way, even if they drifted apart. He now understood what Sae was saying two Christmases ago. Tears gently fell down his cheeks, but it was okay. He didn't hate tears anymore, or feel weak for crying. He was proud of himself for coming so far, and yes, he was overwhelmed, but in a good way.

 _Haaaaaaaw_ , a crow landing on his sketchbook interjected.

"Are you mad that I stopped singing," he laughed, wiping his face. "Not everything's about you, ya know."

**Final chapter**

**15 months later**

Akechi stood outside of Ren's highschool, watching uniformed students disperse and walk home. He wanted to surprise Ren, but it was far more of a challenge and way more expensive than he thought it'd be. He'd never pegged Ren as someone from Akita. Maybe that's why he didn't talk so much. Was he masking an accent and dialect the whole time? Akechi was surprised he didn't catch that.

At the end of his stay at the rehabilitation clinic, he'd received his possessions that were taken at his arrest. He'd held his phone for the first time in over a year. He charged it, reconnected its service— Ren had left him a few voice messages. One Christmas, one him lamenting that he couldn't find him at the local prison for visitation, one wishing him a happy new year, and one the day he left Tokyo.

It was hard to listen to such emotionally charged voice messages, but he had coping skills now. He had a support therapist on speed dial if he needed him. He also...knew all of this was from over a year ago, so he was as prepared for rejection as he could possibly be.

After receiving his possessions from Tokyo PD he'd gone to LeBlanc. Futaba was there, she was surprisingly happy to see him, and she hugged him. She'd chosen to go to Kosei highschool with Yusuke, though he was in a focused program for tech and animation. She served Akechi, and the few geeky girls in Kosei uniforms she was with, curry. How he'd missed this curry. She was happy to tip Akechi off to Ren's location, and keep his discharge a secret.

He wasn’t seeing Ren. He searched the faces of the students, he searched for Ren’s hair. Surely they’d recognize each other?

A few students came up to him.

“Say, aren’t you Goro Akechi?”

“You remember me?”

“Yeah! I was a fan!”

“Us too!” Akechi didn’t anticipate fans after a year of being unplugged.

“Can I have your autograph?”

“Can I have your number?” a boy asked. He gave them all _meishi_.

“I’m looking for a ‘Ren Amamiya.’”

“Oh... _sempai_? OH you must’ve met him in Tokyo! Holy shit!”

“I saw him today,” the boy noted, holding the _meishi_ , still thrilled to have it. One of the girls giggled. “Ren Amamiya,” she grinned at her classmates who grinned back, them all in the know.

“Can I ask what’s funny?” Akechi asked.

“No nothing’s funny, he’s just—”

“ _Sem_ pai~” another girl laughed.

“To translate, the hottest and most sought after guy in school,” the boy informed. “When he came back from Tokyo he was a completely different person than he was two years ago. He was buff, confident, a straight A student.”

It seemed when Ren returned to Akita he hit his old school like a goddamn tidal wave.

“Just generally good at everything,” A girl added. “He used to be a loner but now he's suuuper popular. Everyone at school knows him.”

Goro was feeling less confident.

“Thank you for the insight. If you don’t mind, I’d like some space now.”

“Oh! Sorry to crowd you. Good luck!” the three left. He still didn’t see Ren, but he was apparently there today.

Maybe he had cleaning duty, or maybe he was in a club. Maybe he didn’t go home via the school’s main entrance?

After walking around a bit, he found a bike rack, and his old bike was on it.

“Well I’ll be.” It was well maintenanced and had an aero road helmet clipped to the handlebar. 

He figured that was a good place to stand and wait for Ren.

After a while, he saw him.

He had an entire posse of loving friends, they were smiling and happy, and Ren hugged some of them. Akechi heard his gorgeous voice from afar. 

When Ren saw Akechi, he was so startled he dropped the bread he was eating, and his jaw fell. His friends murmured.

“Go on without me, I’ll see you all tomorrow,” Ren assured them. Akechi watched his posse leave, he waved at him with a bright smile.

“Akechi!” Ren ran at him, tackled him, hugged him close. The hug persisted for a long time, and Akechi cherished every second. This was already going way better than Goro could've hoped for.

“Bet you thought you’d seen the last of me?”

“No. I knew I’d see you again.” Ren started to sniffle.

“Awe." Tears just for him. "May I treat you to some food?”

"Heh, yeah. But let me look at you!"

Ren stepped back.

Akechi's hair was up in a ponytail, he'd just let it grow out since he'd gone to the clinic. He was definitely the same person, but Akechi's aura was...calm. Bright. Akechi was also taller, by like an inch and a half. He was dressed in comfortable, yet fashionable clothes.

"I thought I'd get taller than you," Ren laughed. 

“Oh...I’ve been eating really well,” Akechi replied, chuckling.

[(Click for a picture of Ren!)](https://www.dropbox.com/s/ljvev5v7q3d6scn/Nikki_Commission2%20%282%29.jpg?dl=0)

Ren looked amazing in his school uniform, at least in Akechi’s opinion. More mature, and had a haircut. Akechi couldn’t help but notice Ren had an ear pierced now, and the knit strawberry charm that used to be on his keys had been fashioned into an earring. It dangled on a thin string near his chin.

“Oh— do you want this back?”

“No way,” Akechi beamed. It looked amazing on him. His mother hadn’t had the means to give him too much, but he didn’t think she’d mind if Ren kept it, displaying it proudly. “It looks good on you. As a matter of fact you look amazing.”

“You too, Akechi...or rather...Goro.”

“I got your gift, the art supplies. I was never able to thank you. I’d never received such a perfect gift.” Ren’s face lit up even more. “And before you ask, yes, and here.” Akechi opened his messenger bag and handed Ren his sketchbook . Beaming from ear to ear Ren looked at the pictures. His teeth seemed to be fixed, but there was still a charming chip on his canine. He was smiling in a way that made Akechi think he wasn’t self conscious about it anymore.

“Akechi this is amazing, I could cry—”

“I wouldn’t knock that! Releases endorphins. I’ve posted some of my art and some businesses in Tokyo are going to pay me to spray paint murals on their buildings. I’m excited to start doing murals after being confined to a sketchbook all year.” 

“You filled up the whole thing, wow— shit look at these— Is this where you stayed?” Ren pointed to a zen garden landscape study done in watercolor.

“Yes.”

“I thought you were in prison…”

“I got lucky,” he chuckled. “I royally failed my psych evaluation and they determined that because of that— on top of my history at the rehabilitation clinic— the clinic would be better. Christmas I knew there was a chance of them institutionalizing me, and figured you would probably land in solitary confinement. I’m... sorry about two Christmases ago. I suppose I wanted to turn myself in before you did something stupid.”

“I get that,” Ren nodded coolly, admiring some of Akechi’s logos. 

“It was hard for me to accept that you liked me since I didn’t like myself, and it was really hard for me to be emotionally vulnerable. Aaaand the therapy has done me good. I _wanted_ to get better. It was just hard for me to uproot my life for it, I guess. That gave me the opportunity.”

“I get that. This is incredible.” Ren closed the sketchbook and handed it back to Akechi, then worked toward unlocking his bike.

“Do you want to meet my parents?”

“UH—” Akechi grew flushed immediately.

“I’m kidding,” Ren grinned, pulling his bike from the rack. “My parents aren’t home yet, but we can still go to my house. I can have the maids cook us up something.”

Maids? Wait--was Ren rich? _In Akita?_

Akechi had planned him to take him a restaurant or something, but maybe his house would be better. Besides, he wouldn’t mind seeing how Ren lived.

“I don’t know this area so I’ll let you lead the way.”

They walked together, Ren simply walked his bike, and he spoke to his maids on the phone, cradling it between his cheek and shoulder.

“I dunno just whatever we have around... Cut fruit is fine. Will you make us drinks too? That’s also fine. Thank you so much, sorry for the short notice. Um hm, bye.”

“You have _maids_. Maids to attack trash, hm?”

“I’m so grateful to Sojiro. Before I lived with him I barely knew how to do anything for myself. Now I still do things for myself, but the maids judge me for it. They’re all like ‘you gotta iron your clothes and fold them like this,' and I’m like. Everything I know about domestic skills I learned from Sojiro and Morgana. I’ll use the washer and dryer at home and the maids get pissed off because they have a system and if I do anything for myself I throw off their flow, ya know? I re-organized the fridge once and they lost their _minds_. I cooked them curry once to prove I could stand the heat in the kitchen, and since then they let me cook with them sometimes, and they teach me recipes. We’ve been butting heads all year but they love me.” He rolled his eyes. "I'm eager to move out, though."

“Please introduce me to them.”

“Sure. They love when I bring people over. They like to show off. My mom hates drop-ins, though. Mom's the Mayor," he said. "Of Akita...I think Shido was trying to get in good with my mom when he was over here. Then I pulled him off some woman who was begging for help. My mom was worried I was gonna hurt her re-election if Shido found out we were related—we have different last names— so she shipped me to Tokyo until after the campaign results. My dad and Sojiro are cousins."

"Good thing Shido is in prison until Kingdom come."

" _ **Y**_ ** _es_ **." 

"How do you feel about your parents?"

"...I love them and I get it, but I'm still mad they didn't back me up. If they'd backed me up, things would have been easier, but at the same time doing probation in Tokyo was" Ren chef’s kissed. "I never got to thank you for your Christmas gift, at least in person. I loved it! I go bouldering from time to time. This summer I want to try some real rocks.”

 _“Let’s go together,”_ Akechi said maybe a little too quickly.

“Sure! I’ve been training to keep up with you. Cycling, too.” Akechi’s heart started to flutter, Ren had gotten into his hobbies while he was away. He also remembered him being good at darts, pool, and cooking. He was eager to spend more time with him.

They sat in a yard overlooking the city. The maids had snacks on the lawn furniture for them by the time they arrived, under the shade of an umbrella. Ren’s house was three stories, with traditional architecture, at least that’s what Akechi gathered, from looking at the outside. ([Click for concept art for Ren's house](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XpSqASXz5guX8iWNHXj7lnVqSJLKwtX_/view?usp=sharing))

“You’re an...only child?” Ren nodded, popping a strawberry in his mouth. A few crows landed in Ren’s yard.

“Huh...well that’s on brand."

“You have no idea,” Akechi laughed. “Hm. Now that we’re out of earshot of everyone, I wanted to talk to you about a phenomenon that happened to me when I was at the clinic.” Ren’s eyes met Goro’s, and he looked down, knowingly.

“Ah. Yes. Please continue, Goro.”

“Well...did you— _actually you personally_ — ever come to visit me at the clinic?”

“No. I didn't even know you were at a clinic.”

“That’s what I thought.” Akechi looked troubled.

“Please, eat,” Ren insisted. Akechi nodded, taking a toothpick to start munching. “So you thought you saw me? Will you tell me about it?”

“You’d just showed up one day. Visits are allowed, but there’s _processing_ , especially since I was on probation. I also asked specifically for no one to know where I was. You showed up, every other day for about a month and a half.”

“Interesting.”

“You looked the same, but the way you acted was…” Akechi squinted. “Off. The way you reacted to stimulus was predictable, and you always challenged me in all of the ways I liked, but in none of the ways I didn’t like. I mean, generally you’re in the business of telling people things they want to hear,"

"It's my curse," he smiled.

"—but it was still off. You didn’t make any _mistakes_. It started to upset me. I even cussed you out at some point, and told you to not come back, and you left, but like clockwork two days later you were back. Then in February you just stopped showing up. The last time you visitted was the morning of Febuary third. I felt gas lit, I’d talk to my therapist about your visits, and when you were coming around my therapist told me to just accept that you wanted to see me, and when you were gone his tone completely changed. He told me that you were never there to begin with, and that perhaps I was mixing up my dreams with reality."

“Oof,” Ren shook his head.

“I started to think that ‘that Ren’ was a product of...my desire? When I asked you not to come back I know ‘real you’ would have respected that, but I still wanted to see you, so this— fake— came back. Because of me. I was so scared that Yaldabaoth was picking on me again.” Akechi opened up a small journal, it seemed to have been a gorgeous and colorful mood tracker for the month of January of last year done with copic markers. In a gradient of colors from blue to yellow, tracking mood by the hour. He pointed to mid January, all deep blue.

Ren explained what happened with Maruki— his palace, his wife, his manipulation of mementos, Sumire.

"You...imagined me?"

"You didn't feel like a cognition," Ren sighed. "I feel so dumb. I really thought it was you. It never even crossed my mind that you might have been a cognition." He looked glum. 

"May I ask what's the matter?" Akechi asked.

"I can't believe I didn't see it. You noticed your cognition wasn't me, but I didn't notice..."

"Hey, don't worry about it."

"I loved every second," Ren sighed. "You even fought with us in the palace. You disappeared...again. In an explosion in the end. I was devastated…"

"So what I'm _getting_ is...when we slipped into a sentient reality that manifests our deepest desire, we manifested each other." Ren blushed, having not really thought about it like that.

"Seems like it."

"Ren...I know it's been over a year but…" Goro reached across the table to place his hand atop Ren's "is it bold of me to think I still have a chance with you?" 

"It's not that bold," receptively, Ren interlaced their fingers. Akechi smiled relieved, thrilled, he was more than ready to let himself have this happiness. He thought about his mood, and his mood tracker, and how he was gonna put the brightest yellow marks in it about this.

"I was thinking about where to move to, should I get a place in Akita?"

" _Hell no_ ," he laughed. Ren _did_ have a little bit of an accent. "Maybe you could get a place in Tokyo? I'm going to trade school there, I've been accepted into a carpentry and welding apprenticeship."

"Tokyo it is! I never pegged you for a woodworker."

"Me either. It's amazing what you can find out about yourself if you're not under the constant threat of persecution and death."

"Tell me about it!" They laughed.

“Yeah! Morgana apparently has an affinity for _astronomy_. I bought him a telescope and everything. He stays up all night and sleeps all day now, getting spoiled by the maids.”

"Oh! Morgana's alive?"

They chatted for what must’ve been hours.

“Ren do you ever think of our personas and their mythos?”

“I know quite a bit about the lore of all of our personas. I’ve read books about each of them.”

“Yes. Robin Hood, Arsene Lupin. Did you ever find it funny how I had Robin Hood, yet you had the Band of Merrie Men?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well Arsene Lupin was a thief and master of disguise, known for working alone. Robin Hood was known for leading a group, and teamwork. When I was forced to birth a persona...the persona isn’t assigned an identity. You still create it, and it’s a part if you, even if it’s drug induced. You got Arsene naturally, and our personas reflect our personalities, right? Sometimes I think that was a part of Yaldabaoths’s game: forcing Robin Hood, a naturally social leader, to work alone-- and forcing Arsene Lupin, a burglar who prefers to work alone, to be social, and lead a group of thieves. It's like Yaldabaoth took my crew and gave them to you, and made me watch."

"Hm…" Ren ran his thumb over the back of Akechi's hand as he thought. "Ya know...I think you're right. Before moving to Tokyo I didn't have any friends, and I was okay with that. I kept to myself, no one bothered me, and I didn't bother anyone. But then in Tokyo people just...fell into my lap. Then I was inclined to seek them out."

"Imagine Robin Hood working alone," Akechi chuckled. 

"He'd probably act a lot like you did, especially if he found Lupin with a band of thieves" Ren agreed.

"I was so jealous," Akechi laughed, remembering. "It was _maddening_."

"Yeah…bet papa Yalda didn't bet on _this_ happening." He squeezed Akechi's hand, then noticed his watch. "Shit...on another note my parents will be here in a few minutes," he informed gently.

"I could try to make a good impression. Should I stay, or…"

"Can you give me one more day?" Ren looked embarrassed. "Just need to prime them for company and, ya know, come out…"

"Oh. Will you be alright?"

"Yeah! Yeah, it just hasn't come up, we’re not very close. I'm not too worried about it though. If it's a problem I'll just move to Tokyo sooner. Graduation is a week or so away, so."

"Oh, well _I'm_ in Akita, if it's a problem just join me at my motel.”

“Thank you Akechi,” Ren smiled warmly. “I feel reassured.”

“I’m glad. I’ll take my leave then.” Akechi stood and started to walk to the gate, but hesitated.

“Hey Ren?”

“Hm?” 

He turned and walked back over to Ren to take a knee in front of him, and he gently took Ren’s cheek and leaned in. He didn't go all the way, giving Ren the autonomy to meet him for a kiss, and he did. _Finally_. Ren's lips were soft, he tasted like strawberries. Not wanting to be pushy Goro made the kiss quick, but he felt Ren grip his coat and pull him in for more, felt him slide his arms over his shoulders, opening his mouth invitingly. Goro’s heart was racing, he allowed himself to run his fingers through Ren’s curls and Ren hummed into the kiss. 

When their kiss broke they smiled at each other, Ren chuckled embarrassed, wiping his face and eyes, sniffing again.

"Shit sorry I just...m-missed you, Goro."

"I'm here to stay this time," he assured, planting one last peck on Ren’s face. Akechi stood, breathing to steady himself. He turned to leave.

“I love you Goro! You were worth the wait!” he shouted when he was halfway across the yard. Goro turned to beam at him, the happiest Ren had ever seen him, though Goro saw an object flying at him. He caught it by reflex. It was a key.

“You can take our bike. Be here tomorrow at three!” Goro nodded.

“I’ll be there.” He looked at the key glint in his hand. “Tetris tonight?”

“Y-yeah!” Goro gave a soft nod and took his leave.

It felt good to be reunited with his bike, the wind in his face, his partner’s helmet on his head, a warmth in his chest. He still felt Ren's kiss on his lips and tongue. As he peddled down the dirt road he once again headed toward an uncertain future but he was hopeful, and for now, happy. He was going to do everything in his power to take his own happiness with ungloved hands. He was going to let himself be loved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I love comments!  
> (if the pictures don't work please let me know ;_;)  
> Pictures (wakaba, strawberry Ren) were commissioned, I got them from my pal @akirruiz
> 
> I drew the airport scene, my Insta is @dakkycomics 
> 
> My Persona shitposting insta is @dakkylovespersona  
> Feel free to contact or talk to me to talk about this fanfiction!
> 
> And thank you so flippin' much for getting to the end of my longfic!!! (even without porn?!). The boys are alright, no?  
> I'll probably make more art for this every once in a while! Again, thank you. You rock.


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